Cara in Madagascar

Update on Tsiky

2012-02-13T04:21:00.002+03:00

Thanks to everyone who is praying for my sweet little friend, Tsiky. I just wanted to keep you updated on his status. Tsiky's facial swelling has come and gone twice now, but my friends down in the rain forest say he still has some swelling/puss under his eye which is affecting his vision. Please keep him in your prayers.

"...pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16

Today I Miss...

2012-02-07T19:12:00.006+03:00

These people:
And her a lot:
And all the children of Ankazotsara...but especially my favorites, "Smile" and "Many Men."

A Day in the Life: American Version

2012-02-04T07:13:00.007+03:00

My living room. 1996. My junior high self was chilling on the floor reading a book when out of nowhere my sister does a front flip and her feet land on my face. *crack* goes my nose. I’m pretty sure my nose was broken that day.

My kitchen. 2012. My 27-year-old self goes to hug that same sister, things get confused, and her head bangs my nose. *crack* Seriously? I start laughing and crying at the same time. You can see from the picture that it isn’t too swollen and not broken [this time]. It’s not even crooked – that was just photo fun. I just had to share the irony with you. Whose sister cracks their nose twice and doesn’t even use a fist?!

You can pretty much imagine what goes on when I’m at work in the emergency room, but that’s only a couple days a week. What do I do on my days off? Well, besides getting beat up by my sister, here’s a sampling…

I drove with my mom to pick up my car from the mechanics (failed mission) and on the way back sat in the trunk, pulling the trash can up the driveway. That took me back to my 7-year-old days and made me giggle. :)

I wrote a paper and four discussion posts for my nursing course - woot!

I started reading Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness which led me to these lovely verses from Exodus 15:11, 13:

“Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?...You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.”

What a joy and honor it is to know personally the one and only God, Who continuously does wondrous things, Whose love never fails. Who I can fully trust because He is always faithful to guide me and has redeemed even me from my sin.

I did WiiFit. What can I say? I really like it!

Played games (Rummikub and Quirkle) and talked with my family. Found out a study was done and people who regularly partake of sugar tend to be more kind and generous. That led us to make yummy brownies and eat them with ice cream, so we will be very nice tomorrow. *grin*

Tsiky

2012-01-26T21:23:00.008+03:00

[Update: our team in the rain forest saw Tisky on Sunday.. The swelling has significantly decreased, but he is still not feeling well. He slept most of Saturday and did not eat. He still has pain in his face and he lets you know by continual crying. Please keep praying for Tsiky’s eye infection.]

Remember this sweet boy? He is Lolo's son, the one who had the broken arm last year (http://carainmadagascar.blogspot.com/2011/09/doctor-doctor.html).

According to different doctors with differing views, Tsiky has developed a severe tooth or eye infection. They placed him on antibiotics a few days ago, but his swelling has not decreased and he is still running a high fever. The doctors changed his antibiotics today. Please pray that Tsiky will be fully and quickly healed to the glory of God our Father!

(Happy Tsiky last year with his cast)

Why I Still Need My Mother

2012-01-25T06:00:00.008+03:00

"What on earth, Cara? You're twenty-seven years old and you still need your mommy?!"

While that may be your incredulous thought, the answer is yes, I do. :-) After a long and very good day in the ER, I came home to find this in my room:

[the note reads "TRADE: You must toss at least one formally white tee]

I was confused for a moment. I already have two white long-sleeved shirts, right? Why would I need new ones? Then I started laughing.

The long-sleeved white tee I wore last shift to work had no problems anywhere a person could see, but the body of it had mold stains from Mada that wouldn't come out even when washed with bleach. I figured it was okay because only the sleeves showed - everything else was under my scrubs. Upon closer inspection, I saw that white tee #2 was white...but only compared to dirt. After two years in Madagascar, that one wasn't turning white any day soon, either. :P I really just don't think about these things until someone tells me!

Also the chocolate + pretzels shows how well she knows me. *grin*

I'm glad I have a person in my life willing to step up and tell me "What Not to Wear," and spoil me rotten with treats. :D

Currently Reading...

2012-01-20T08:39:00.005+03:00

I have had MUCH fun being back in a land where books are in English are readily accessible. Fiction, non-fiction, medical, missional, books I can turn off my brain and read and books that require concentration have all made it into my collection of the last few months. I am currently reading the book above by one of my favorite guys, Oswald Chambers. Here's an excerpt from the chapter five:

Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master...for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect-Luke 12:35-36, 40.

"The greatest need of the missionary is to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn, and it is not easy to be ready to do that, whatever our experience of sanctification may be. The great battle all along is not so much against sin as against being so absorbed in work that we are not ready to face Jesus Christ. The one great need is not to face our beliefs and our creeds, or the question of whether we are of any use or not, but to face our Lord. This attitude of being ready to face Him means more and more disentanglement from so-called religious work, and more and more intense spiritual reality in so-called secular work. The whole meaning of the Christian life from our Lord's standpoint is to be ready for Him."

Malagasy Students

2012-01-08T23:48:00.001+03:00

“My tribe has a taboo against eating pig, so I don’t eat pig.” The girl informs those of us at her table.

“Did you know hot dogs have pig in them? I didn’t know that until I had lived here in America for a couple years.” Responds a Malagasy guy.

“Hot dogs have pig?! Oh dear – I eat hot dogs sometimes!” The girl looks slightly troubled.

“Yeah – another one I learned was ham. Ham is pig, too!” The boy puts his arms wide in the ‘who knew?!’ position.

“Oh no – I eat ham sandwiches every day!!!” The girl says with a look of horror on her face.

It has been a blast getting to meet some of the Malagasy students here in town. I have been especially amused by their initial thoughts of and adjustments to America. They arrived at the university a mere week before classes began (in English, of course), barely knowing the language! They said the first month they were here they just hoped to get in line at the cafeteria behind someone who wanted a yummy meal, because all they knew how to say was, “The same!”

My family very sweetly went along with my idea to invite all of the students over (we had about 20 people for supper) to our house. It was fun showing them my pictures from Mada because I have been to several of their home towns and they were excited to show their friends where they lived. One guy also knew one of my Malagasy friends in my photos (the one above)!

Some of the students want to head back to Madagascar upon graduation, others want to visit then return, and still others want to stay in America. They are a diverse group, but all agreed that, for Madagascar to develop well, people (especially in government) need to have a heart and mind change.

Thanks for praying for my language ability. A bunch of vocab came flooding back as I was speaking with them, and several of them complimented my language skills (following the normal pleasant Malagasy culture they would have regardless, but hey, I’m choosing to believe some of them were sincere!), so I could tell you guys were lifting me up. :)

Tratra ny Krismasy!

2011-12-24T22:15:00.002+03:00

Merry Christmas to all, and to all in Africa, goodnight.

Here in America, however, it is still mid-day Christmas Eve. The tree is lit, the goodies are made, and family is, indeed, gathered near.

I wanted to let you guys know that I was able to attend an international dinner with the Malagasy students at my sister's university and have them over to our home. It has been utterly delightful getting to know them and speak Malagasy with them. I will blog about it soon, but for now I am merely hopping on to say Merry Christmas. :)

A Different Proposal

2011-12-04T07:58:00.007+03:00

Here I was missing the oddities of living in another culture and I get one in my own. :-)

Stopping at Burger King to get an icee on my way home, I called my little brother and ask if he’d like one. “No, but I want onion rings,” he answers. I lower my window to order.

“What can I get you today?” The faceless man through the box queries. “I’d like an icee and medium onion rings, please.” “That will be a bamedium…arg…seeicee…arg! An icee and onion rings? Sorry about that, I got my words mixed up,” announces the box. I chuckle and tell him it’s no problem.

Arriving at the window, a gentleman in a red Burger King visor leans out. “That’ll be $1.57.” “One fifty-seven?” I ask. “Shouldn’t my total should be more than that?” “Yeah,” the guy grins and looks me in the eye. “I’ve got a proposal for you.”

Oh dear. The last dozen proposals I’ve received have only been for one thing: marriage. But since this guy and I met mere moments before, I’m hoping it’s something else…

“Here’s my proposal. You take the satisfaction survey, tell them V** gave you awesome customer service, and I’ll give you a free icee!”

I ponder quickly. Hmm…can he do that? Give away free food for good reviews? Is this corruption on the lightest level? I guess he knows the rules better than me since he works here. A free icee would be nice. I definitely consider free food awesome customer service, so…

“Sure,” I say. “Thanks!” He turns around, tossing the onion rings into the brown sack. “I’ve got one more surprise for you.” Reaching out, he hands me the bag. “It’s a large.” Smiling broadly, the guy bids me goodnight and I pull away.

I don’t know if this is normal in America now, if he does this to everyone or just people who are nice to him when he stumbles over his words, but I certainly was laughing on the way home, sipping my Coke icee in bliss. ;)

Thoughts a Month Later

2011-11-22T23:07:00.003+03:00

I’ve been back in Nashville for over a month now. Fall is in full swing (see the colors changing on the trees in the photo above – definitely different than the ever-green rain forest). I have stopped washing and re-using Ziplocks. I have mostly stopped blurting out Malagasy words or phrases. I have stopped remembering people by their outfits (since it’s doesn’t work because those change here in America :P). I have not stopped being grateful for seeing friends and family in person. I am a little amazed at how fat and healthy the squirrels are in my neighborhood – even though several of them are tailless. Very strange.

I miss my friends in Madagascar. I miss getting US embassy updates, humorous as they were. I miss hiking in the rain forest. I miss oddities happening to me every day.

I am still ever, ever so glad to have our Lord with me. He is my Rock and my Refuge. He is my Shepherd. He is worthy of my trust. “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people, pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:5-8

Update from the rain forest: Lolo has been sharing her story of God’s grace with other villages. She recently asked if there was anywhere in the Bible that forbade her to go to more than one village per day! I praise God that He is rising up believers in the rain forest to tell of His goodness to those who have not heard.

Continuing on...

2011-11-17T21:10:00.004+03:00

I am officially a student again. Crazy, I know. :) I'm taking a 15-month RN-BSN program with classes starting in January 2012.

Still thinking/praying about which job to accept. You can definitely continue to lift me up in that regard.

I have a date to meet my soon-to-be favorite Nashvillian-Malagasy friends on the first Friday in December, so yay! :-)

I love all of Isaiah 40, but the ending's really super:
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

How Cool is God

2011-11-05T19:18:00.008+03:00

My little sister mentioned that there was a rumor going around that there are a couple Malagasy students at her university. I had her ask around to see who they were (if they would like to get together to chat, etc). We got a call from a very excited International Student Adviser because it turns out that the school my little sister goes to has the highest population of Malagasy students in America! What's the "chance" of that? Apparently they had some deal with the former Malagasy president and so they actually have TWENTY-SIX Malagasy students!

The Int'l Student Adviser said she didn't think any of them had met an American who spoke Malagasy, so they would be especially thrilled about that (yikes - need to keep practicing...talking with myself :P). The group gets together fairly often for "potlucks and things," and are going to begin inviting me whenever they have them. I don't know what exactly this is going to look like, but I am excited for the opportunity and think God is pretty cool for organizing this "coincidence." :-)

What Was I Thinking?!

2011-11-02T19:00:00.003+03:00

The masses are wondering: What was Cara thinking on her way back to America from Madagascar?!” Well wonder no longer. lol. Okay, maybe you should continue wondering in general, but wonder no longer about this…and pardon the flight of ideas. It doesn’t always mean mental illness, you know. ;)

“It really doesn’t seem like I’m moving back to America. I’ve been traveling so much this past year. Maybe what’s going on is that I’ll be there for a few weeks and then come back to Mada.”

“Ads for medications on the airport bathroom wall? It’s almost like you can make an informed decision about which ones you want or something…”

“I am so incredibly glad that God is my Guide and will always lead me in His timing. Man does that bring peace of mind.”

“There are some guys that like…other guys? I forgot about that. All the guys I met in Madagascar liked girls.”

After turning to whisper to Heather in our “secret” language – English – I realized: “A lot of people speak English even if they’re foreign. It can’t be the language we talk about other people in anymore.”

“I’m supposed to have big emotions right now, right? I don’t. I’m strange.”

“American airports keep people SO updated. How can they possibly need/want/care about so many updates?”

“Even if I am doing ‘mundane’ things in the day, I can adventure with my God throughout that time. Because He is THAT cool, oh yes, He is. Thank You for these last two years, LORD, Praise Your name, for mighty are Your acts, and glorious Your ways…I am so glad I never have to leave Your presence. Please let me be a blessing – a channel of Your love – as I return. Do I ever need WISDOM!”

“Spicy chicken sandwiches from Wendy’s are amazing. Truly amazing.”

Tanala Village Prayer Guide

2011-10-19T03:12:00.013+03:00

In case you didn't catch it below, I'm putting village info up to help continue prayer support for the Tanala people in the rain forest. Please choose one or two villages from the fifteen below to commit praying for. If you would like more info on a specific village, please write me and I’ll fill you in! Pray with great faith – our God is big!

"I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages - villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world."
Robert Moffat

“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, Light has dawned.”
Matthew 4:16

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."
Charles Spurgeon

Amandrovany: ah-mahn-dro-vahn-ee
This is the village where Dada Be, the elderly witch doctor, lives. Amandrovany is steeped in ancestor and nature worship, but amazingly many people there incorrectly think that they are “Christian.” Even Dada Be will tell you that he is “Lutheran.” Please pray that the few believers in Amandrovany will live radically different lives as a witness to others as to what it truly looks like to follow Christ.

Ambodivoahangy: ahm-boo-dee-voo-ah-hahn-gee
The curious village. I love all the questions people have here, but am burdened for the majority of them that do not yet have an understanding of what the Gospel really means. Please pray that they would understand clearly what the Gospel is, realize the darkness that they are in, and turn to the Light.

Ambohinihaonana: ahm-boo-hee-nee-hao-nah-nah
We had an excellent reception from the people of Ambohinihaonana last time we went. Praise God for our good relationship with this village. There are still many practicing witchcraft and following all the taboos of the ancestors. Please pray that the people would clearly see and understand what it means to follow God and be free from the bondage of sin.

Ampitambe: ahm-pee-tahm-beh
The people in Ampitambe are very ignorant regarding Truth and the Bible. They informed us that “God is like your mom and dad – a source of life. But your mom and dad are the gods you can see." Please pray that they would be liberated from the lies that blind them.

Ampitivanana: ahm-pee-tih-vah-nah-nah
Pretty much breaks my heart. Ampitivanana is one of the closest villages to the road. Initially welcoming, the chiefs of Ampitivanana told us we could come and teach whenever we wanted. After a few lessons, it became apparent that the villagers only listened for entertainment and what they could get from us. Please pray they come to realize that the spiritual hope that we bring is much more important than whatever “stuff” they want from us.

Anjaka: ahn-zah-kah
The people here have heard of heaven, but said “it’s a mystery to us who gets to go.” They are still very connected to following their ancestors. Please pray that God blesses them with faith and that their hearts would understand their great spiritual need so that they would go to Him for redemption.

Ankazotsara: ahn-kah-zoo-tsah-rah
This is Lolo and Etsiky’s village. The believers in Ankazotsara have been oppressed for no longer following the ways of the ancestors, but are now meeting weekly (on Thursday afternoons) to study the Bible. Please pray that God would strengthen these believers and daily add to their number!

Beremby: beh-rem-bee
I see great potential in this village. We have only gotten to visit Beremby a couple times, but the people seemed very welcoming to us and of the message that we brought. They freely admitted that they do not know how or why to worship God, but would like us to teach them. Please pray that they would keep this willing attitude to learn of the True God, and have hearts tender toward Him.

Bevoahazo: beh-voo-ah-hah-zoo
This is the village where a lady and her husband are building an extra room in their house so the people of Bevoahazo can come and study the Bible. Please pray that the believers here would show love to all who come, including building relationships with the other members on our team.

Fanolafana: fah-noo-lah-fah-nah
A village far out we have only been able to visit once, but have been informed that they “already have a religion and don’t need another one.” Please pray that they would recognize their desperate need for our Saviour, and have opportunities to see genuine differences in the lives of the few believers in the surrounding areas.

Foibe: foo-ee-beh
We have been able to pour into Foibe with the Jesus and God Story films, a volunteer team, a roof for their school, and many, many trips filled with evangelism and encouragement. The village is divided into those who want to follow the Bible and those who want to follow the ancestors. Two of their chiefs are pictured above. The one on the left desires the Bible to be taught to the children, and the one on the right seems uninterested. Please pray that God would give all the people of Foibe a single mind with a desire to follow Him.

Kianjanomby: kee-ahn-zahn-oom-bee
It seems that every time we arrive in Kianjanomby, half the people are drunk. They are a village that sees little hope for their lives. Please pray that they see their sin as God does, and go to Him for forgiveness through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Morafeno: moor-ah-feh-noo
Is not actually a village, but the town that we lived in. We lived on the top floor of a hotel, and on the bottom floor is where a group of believers meets every Sunday. Please pray that God would rise up leaders in the church, and that those who believe will be passionate about studying God’s Word and sharing their faith with others.

Torotosy: too-roo-too-see
The killing of opposite gender twins is still happening in this village. “Good” witchcraft is considered okay, but sorcery has been outlawed in Torotosy. Our team would like to start up a weekly Bible study in this area. Please pray that people would be eager to come and that God would prepare their hearts even now to be tender toward Him.

Vatofotsy: vah-too-foo-tsee
I was extremely encouraged at the response of the people in Vatofotsy to the Gospel. They are a very far away village, so they will probably not get discipleship opportunities often. Please pray that the believers learn from the Holy Spirit how to study the Bible and share the Good News with others. Please pray that they keep their excitement about following Jesus.

The Farewell Episode

2011-10-17T23:28:00.003+03:00

This is the last update I sent out to my prayer partners, but y'all blog readers can disregard the word "farewell" as I will be continuing on here for a while. :)

Dear friends,

What an amazing journey we have taken together these last two years. I praise God for all of you faithfully interceding on my behalf. I truly do “thank my God upon every remembrance of you” (Phil. 1:3).

I was able to have sweet times saying goodbye to the many lovely people I left behind in Madagascar, and am now back in Nashville.

You may be asking “what now?” What do we do with the last two years’ investment into the Tanala people? Please keep interceding on their behalf. I give glory to God for all the people He has shown His light upon, but there are so many still left in darkness. I know it can be hard to pray general prayers, so I wrote and attached a Tanala Village Prayer Guide to help you remember. Please check it out and continue to remember the people there. Along with the villages, lift up Mirana, Rivo, Hanta, and the Newton and Norton families continuing to work in the rain forest with the Tanala.

Many of you have queried about my future plans. For the rest of the year I will be visiting with family and friends, and then plan to start another year of nursing school in January 2012. This should enable me to be able to practice nursing anywhere in the world. *grin* I’ll probably also be working part-time or PRN in a hospital in Nashville. You all can definitely continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for me as I follow our amazing Lord!

Again, there are not words enough to convey my deep gratitude to you all. Thank you.

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Rev. 4:8b

I love you all,
Cara :)
Rev. 7:9-12

A note to my blog readers: instead of copying the six-page Word document on here, I’ll be putting a couple villages up each day. Please choose one or two villages from the fifteen to commit praying for at least once a week for at least six months. If you would like more info on your chosen village(s), please write me and I’ll fill you in! Pray with great faith – our God is big!

The Rock Forest

2011-10-11T12:03:00.007+03:00

On our way back from Tulear, Mirana and I stayed with friends who live near Isalo National Park (aren’t they such a cute family?!). It was fun hiking around (Madagascar such a diverse place!) and spending time with them, but difficult to see their situation.

‘Micah’ is well-educated and takes initiative to provide for his family, but there are few jobs to be found. He managed to find one in Isalo, which is the reason they moved from the rain forest down south. However, if he wants his family to live with him, he has to rent a room for them all and is unable to save money. If he saves up money, he is separated from his family for long periods of time. It’s been tough, especially since he has only been able to find one other believer in the area. This is Bara territory. A self-proclaimed “hard-headed” tribe, they have fierce bandit gangs, and the men aren’t even allowed to get married until they have stolen at least one zebu. Here is one of their graves, built into the side of a rock so that no one steals the burial cloth:

This lemur mommy and baby visited us while we enjoyed our picnic. Cute cute. :)

Hiking through all these rocks, you can imagine my delight when we came to a natural swimming pool (of course we got in!). MAN is God ever an Awesome Creator!

What NOT to Do

2011-10-03T09:55:00.006+03:00

Who knows if it’s still on today, but back when I babysat a sweet girl named Hope, we watched this TV show called, “What NOT to Wear.” The show takes people in serious need of clothing style intervention and has experts fly in to save the day with money and talent to create a new wardrobe for the lucky participant. Back then, I secretly pondered the idea of dressing frumpily for a month or two, in hopes that one of my friends would sign me up. Who knows, maybe after living in Africa for two years, I may qualify legitimately. ;)

When you’re assisting a mission team, not many people care what you wear, but there are certainly some things you shouldn’t do. Below is a sample from my trip to Tulear of things that were not the brightest ideas I’ve ever had. So here you have it – the Malagasy version of “What NOT to Do:”

#1: What not to do: feed your volunteers unknown food. I saw some kids enjoying green shavings of a fruit-like substance, and popped some in my mouth. I couldn’t figure out what it was, so I called one of the volunteers over and asked him to try it. He did. Only afterwards did I realize how badly that could have gone. Thankfully, God protected our stomachs and neither one of us had any problems even though the kids had a unique way of cleaning the shaving knife – licking it. :P As for the fruit, green mango is our best guess to date. :)

#2: What not to do: jump into deep holes you can’t get out of without help. Two of the volunteers and Mirana were having a medical and spiritual discussion with a woman in her home. I know it’s distracting if dozens of curious children are poking in all the time, so I decided to distract the kids. Eventually, I ran out of songs and games, and asked the kids to show me what they play. “Jump in the hole!” they yelled, running around like hooligans. I looked down in this six-foot deep hole, and realized I’m not going to be able to get out without help. The children proceeded to show me how they jump into the hole, do a little dance, and get pulled out by their friends. Not knowing if they would do the same for me, I jumped down in the hole, did a little dance, and raised my arms up, hoping my faith in them was not misplaced. Thankfully, the kids had a heart and pulled me out. Back in the hut, the lady that the volunteers and Mirana talked with prayed to become a child of God! SO worth it.

#3: What not to do: turn down marriage proposals. Especially from men who claim to love you for more than your ability to get them to America. At twenty-six, I am definitely considered an old maid here, and more than one gentleman told me, “We don’t have to live in the USA; we could live in the capital city, or the rain forest, or even here in this desert village!” How could I have rejected that?

#4: What not to do: assume to know the way from a dust cloud. Many of you would be jealous of all the cool roads I got to drive on – rock fields, sand dunes, ox cart trails, etc. I didn’t know how to get out to the Mahafaly villages, so I just followed Grant in the truck ahead of me. Sometimes his truck would kick up crazy dust clouds and I had to stop and wait for it to clear before I could continue on. One time we came to a split in the road. My car was so far behind that we couldn’t see his truck and didn’t know which way he had taken. All of a sudden, we saw a cloud of dust ahead on the path to the left. Diving into the forest with the truck, we raced along for a few minutes before we realized that the other car had not taken this road…the dust from the right trail had blown over on this one, fooling us all. Praise the Lord we were able to get back on the right track and didn’t encounter any bandits on the road home!

#5: What not to do: forget to exploit fears. One of the strong men of a village looked at Kelly, Steffi, and I and said, “If I saw you three girls walking down the road at night, I would be so scared I’d jump into a cactus!” We asked him why, and he said it was because we are white like ghosts. Oh the fun we could have had… :P

All in all, I had a WONDERFUL time on my jaunt down to Tulear with the team from the Southbridge Fellowship. The team came well prepared with hearts ready to learn and serve, so they were a joy to get to know and work with. It was such a blessing to get to see the ministry of my friends and co-workers in Tulear, the Waller family and Tessa, firsthand. On the medical side of the team, we were able to teach medical lessons, assess villages, coach a community health worker, visit people in their homes, answer many questions, and instruct classes of medical students at the university in the city.

I was delighted to have Mirana (our national partner pictured at the top) accompany me on this trip. We had many great chats. Seeing that she is competent in medical teaching and passionate about sharing Jesus, and knowing she will continue our work has been such a comfort and encouragement to me as Heather and I are packing up to come back to America. You guys can certainly be in prayer for us as we get all our stuff ready to return and say our goodbyes to the lovely people here. Amazingly enough, my next (and probably last) letter to y’all will probably be from the great state of Tennessee. What a remarkable time we have had here. What a privilege it has been to see God work here. Thank you for your prayers and the love you continually show me.

“The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood, and the LORD sits as King forever. The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace.” Psalm 29:10-11

Cara :)
Isaiah 1:18-19

Not Your Third Wife

2011-09-26T00:52:00.004+03:00

I look forward to sharing pics and stories from Mahafaly land with you soon, but thought I'd share this pic (sans the story) with you now. To give you a hint of their mindset, when we were talking about God's plan for marriage using the story of Adam and Eve, one of our volunteers mentioned that a wife is a blessing from the Lord. A Mahafaly man piped up and said, "Then I am very blessed - I have three!"

Grandma Gives Birth

2011-09-17T14:31:00.007+03:00

On my way to Madagascar, I asked God to let me see a birth in a village during my time here. This last week, He said yes to that request!

Chatting over breakfast in the village of Ambodivoahangy, our host mentioned that “the pregnant woman has laid down.” I looked at Mirana, wondering if that could mean what I thought it did. It did. “That means she will give birth soon.” Mirana, well aware of my adoration of newborns, went ahead and asked which hut belonged to the pregnant lady.

After (quickly) finishing breakfast, we went to the woman’s house, and she said she would not mind at all if I was present at the birth. Here are some numbers for you:

42 - Age of the pregnant lady (her daughter has a child of her own)
15 - Times she has given birth
12x16 - Width and length (in feet) of the dimly lit hut
6 - How many living children she has
6 - Sets of mothers and babies who gathered in the hut when it was time for her to give birth
1 - Rusty razor brought out to cut the cord

Her husband was running around the house, snatching down any loose items on the walls or windowsills “so the placenta doesn’t get stuck hanging.” There are lots of rules about birth, so I was happy to only commit one social taboo during the entire time! :P You see, I think every birth is a miracle. When the sweet little girl came out, she wasn’t moving or crying. After a couple slaps on the bottom, she started wailing - such a reassuring sound! I looked at her mom and said excitedly, “Congratulations on your baby!” The midwife looked over at me and said, “Wait!”

Apparently, the people in the mountains have a saying very much like our American “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” and that is, “Don’t say congratulations until the placenta comes out.” Oopsie. You can bet your britches I started praying hard that nothing went wrong, lest they think it was my fault for breaking their taboo! Thank the Lord, everything came out alright and they quickly forgave me and ended up chuckling at my ignorance. :-)

After the birth, it was strange because the women just sat around quietly. No “oohs” and “ahhs” over how cute the baby was. It is taboo to show a lot of happiness when a child is born. If you do, they believe the ancestors will get jealous and kill your baby. I decided to pull the foreigner (exemption) card and show my excitement anyway. 1) Because there was no stopping it, and 2) because children are a blessing from the Lord, so I figured I had a biblical basis to rejoice. ;)

(The midwife and me)

Each night this last week in the village, the people drank and partied into the wee hours of the morning, getting ready for the circumcision party on Sunday. One night, I thought the circumcision dancers were singing about me, but figured I was just being vain. Turns out they were. :P They were hoping the foreigner would come dancing with them. While I am not against a dance party, a hut full of drunken people screeching worship to the forest is not something I am going to join in on! There are twenty-six little boys that will be circumcised tomorrow (their foreskins will be eaten, according to custom, by a close relative) with the same knife. “Don’t be worried,” the people told me, “we rinse the knife off with water and moonshine.” Oh my.

Prayer Requests/Praises:
- For the people of this village (Ambodivoahangy) to understand clearly what the Gospel is, realize the darkness that they are in, and turn to the Light.
- Monday morning Mirana and I drive down to Tulear to work with a medical team that is coming from the states. We will be there Sept. 19-30. Please remember us during this time!
- Etisky was able to go to the specialist and get his arm set without difficulty. He is now running around, cute as ever, with a cast on and a follow-up appointment scheduled!

“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, Light has dawned.” Matthew 4:16

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” I Peter 2:9

In His love,
Cara :)
John 1:1-14

Doctor, Doctor

2011-09-06T17:32:00.008+03:00

I’m always excited to get to do hands-on nursing. I know our medical teaching is incredibly helpful, prevents problems, and is much more reproducible than just me giving out some band-aids, but I sure miss the hands-on aspect of nursing at times! This is one reason why this last week has been so neat for me.

We were able to bring two visiting doctors from America to the village of Ankazotsara. They taught about disease transmission, gave out de-worming pills, shared the Gospel with 100 people, and had a clinic in the little schoolhouse! I was concerned at first that people might not come due to trust and shyness issues, but they came in droves, praise the Lord! The doctors were very patient with everyone, and, along with “normal” illnesses, got to see some tropical diseases like elephantiasis (pictured above).

During clinic time, a 4-year-old boy named Etsiky was brought in. He had fallen two days prior, and looked like he had a broken arm. He had had no pain medication the whole time. His parents didn’t know how to care for it, so his arm was just hanging limp and swollen by his side. :( The family had no money with which to take him to the hospital (hospitals here don’t treat without money given up front), so they were just going to leave it like that. I talked with his parents, assuring them we would help out financially, and they agreed to let me take them to the hospital the next morning. Sure enough, Etisky had a broken arm. The bad news was that the bone had started to heal improperly. Etisky needed an orthopedist to re-break the bone, set it properly, and put on a cast. The initial doctor exam, x-rays, and medicine were not very expensive. The total came to $7.50. But a trip to another hospital to see an orthopedist and get the procedure done (since they don’t have the right capabilities at the hospital that is close) was going to be more expensive. Praise the Lord, there is a group of believers in the Czech Republic who sent us money specifically to meet medical needs, so we were able to use that to get Etsiky to the specialist! We were also able to pray with him and his family, and share how God can heal through miracles or by the wisdom and skill He has given to doctors. I have seen many children and adults in the villages with mangled or useless limbs from never healing right after a break, so to be able to prevent this in this little boy was such a blessing to my heart and to everyone involved.
The smiling photo of Etsiky is from before his accident. The pitiful picture of Etisky crying was the day we took him to the hospital. We were trying to makeshift a sling and teach his mom ways to decrease the swelling. We ended up demonstrating how to properly use a sling on his good arm, and, once the pain medications kicked in, his mother was able to put the sling on his hurt arm. She said it helped bring the swelling down, praise the Lord!

I always struggle at the end of my letters to you because there are SO MANY amazing, wonderful, corrective, exhortive, inspiring verses I want to send you! If I sent them all, however, each update would be hundreds of pages long, so let me just encourage you with this and I will wrap it up. :-) The words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

May God bless you, my friends and prayer warriors!
Cara :)

P.S. The medical care in this country might be super sub-par, but the views are beautiful! This one's from my veranda (yes, I live in a paradise):

Photographer of the Dead

2011-08-26T17:33:00.007+03:00

Crammed into a small, dark room, inebriated people jostle me from every side. Amidst the wailing and moaning, I steady myself to take a picture of the deceased woman lying in the center of the room. A warm liquid drenches my pajama pants as a mourner spills their alcohol on me. Feeling a bump to the back of my knee, I catch myself just before falling on top of the dead.

How did I get to be here?!

Yesterday we arrived in the village of Vatofotsy. A lady had died and the people were on their third day of mourning (meaning that they would bury her the next day). We decided to be culturally-appropriate and just grieve with the people, which for us meant paying our respects to the family, having quiet conversations, and not teaching any Bible or medical lessons until the next day. I decided to steal away for a minute to go up on the hill and take a photo of the city from above.

“Yip yip yip yip!” I heard yelping from the mountain. I must admit that my first thought was that there was a dog fight, but then I saw a line of mourners coming down the trail, headed to the room where the dead lady lay. I soon learned that as people came in from other towns, as soon as the Vatofotsy was in was in sight, the wailing would commence.

“The brother of the deceased is here to see you,” Mirana informed me as the evening grew dark. A forlorn-looking gentleman shook my hand. “We have heard that you have a camera. Won’t you please come and take a picture of my sister before she is buried?”

“I’m sorry, but there’s nowhere in town for me to get pictures developed,” I explained. “You wouldn’t have an actual photo, but just an image on this screen here.” “It doesn’t matter,” the man replied. “We just want to honor her memory by letting her have one picture taken before she is never seen again.” Oh my. How on earth can you say no to that?! “Of course I will.”

Since it is already dark and there are preparations to be made to the body, we make plans for me to come at 7am the next morning to take the picture. Mirana and I set our alarm and doze off – only to be awoken by sobbing and mourning songs that went on all throughout the night.

I awoke to Mirana shaking me. “The men are outside and ready for you!” It was barely light. The 6:30am alarm had not gone off yet. Who knows what time it was. I grabbed my lamba, tied it around my pajama pants, and stumbled outside. I gave the men a solemn smile, and followed them down the muddy path through the mist to the wailing room.

As I entered, the women instantly started primping the body of the dead woman for the photo and the brother started primping himself and the woman’s son. I asked, and sure enough, he wanted a picture with the family and the deceased after I took one of just her laying there…which brings us back to the beginning of this tale.

Finally upright, yet smelling like a distillery, I take a photo of the dead woman. I drift off, wondering if my sister, Cali, ever had any classes on this in photography school… Snapping back to real time, I let the immediate family position themselves near the lady’s head and take another photo, only to hear the brother ask me to then take yet another picture of the woman’s cousin, great-aunt, etc. Soon enough, I have taken a panorama around the room of everyone in there – and quite awkwardly. I can’t exactly say, “1-2-3-smile!” when people are mourning all around me, and am definitely not used to taking pictures of people looking downright morose, but such is life in the rain forest. I finish snapping the photos and head back to my tent, while the mourners hoist the woman onto their shoulders and start the long, slow journey up to the burial place of the ancestors.

So, smelling like alcohol and still in my pajamas, I had this great and strange cultural experience. And that, my friends is how I became the “Photographer of the Dead.”

Proverbs 25:25

2011-08-20T14:28:00.002+03:00

God is awesome.

“The LORD will be awesome to them, for He shall reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth; people shall worship Him, each one from his place, indeed all the shores of the nations.” Zephaniah 2:11

I want to share with you guys some snippets from the villages we have recently visited:

Ampitambe – ahm-pee-tahm-beh Status: first time visit
Just as we were about to present the gospel, it began to rain. I asked God to stop the rain and hold it off until we were done and that He did! The moment everyone was done asking questions, the rain came back and the people looked at each other and said, “It’s a miracle!” The people in Ampitambe are very ignorant regarding Truth and the Bible. They informed us that “God is like your mom and dad – a source of life. But your mom and dad are the gods you can see." When we asked what illnesses were common in their village I had to chuckle, because among the normal diarrhea, convulsions, and malaria, a man piped up and said, “A lot of us have bad breath!” :P

Vatofotsy – vah-too-foo-tsee Status: first time visit
The people of Vatofotsy had never heard of missionaries before. They queried, “Are you guys politicians?” Sure – Cara for president! Ha ha. While there, we encountered some of the most spiritually hungry people we have met. One man, after hearing the Word, said, “I don’t know what the elders will say, but I personally give my life to Jesus.” In this communal culture that is just huge! Before we left, he came and thanked us for giving them the truth from the Bible because “you guys are the first to bring us the truth.” Oh my. What a pleasure it is to work here.

Ankazotsara – ahn-kah-zoo-tsah-rah Status: regular follow-up being done
When we first come to a village, a lot of people wonder why we are there and what we’re up to. We have to earn their trust. After finishing up my lesson on nutrition, I learned one reason why they are so cautious. “Thank you so much for the nutrition lesson. The last people who came here to teach us about nutrition didn’t. They taught us to drink alcohol, steal other men’s wives, and ended up almost fighting by time their talk was done. You are the first one to actually teach us what it really is.” Jeremy and Tim have been going here every Thursday to study through the book of Acts with a group of believers and interested people, so Mirana and I also led a couple sessions on how to study the Bible and were encouraged by their desire to learn. An elderly lady visiting from town said, “It’s so good that you have come here, because the Church tells us we should not read or study the Bible on our own because it might be confusing or scary, but we really need to know what God says!”

A couple dates for your prayer calendars:
August 23-26 – hiking to far-off Ambadivoahangy (evangelism, discipleship, medical teaching)
September 19-30 – medical mission trip to Tulear, Madagascar (on the southwestern coast)

Proverbs 25:25 says, “As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.” I hope this news was a blessing to you all! As I gear up to come back to America in less than two months, I am wondering if y’all would send me updates on what’s new with you and your family so I can start getting caught up on the last two years of your life! Thanks!

And again, thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement.
I love you all,
Cara :)
Joel 2:13/I Samuel 16:7

What We Do On Rainy Days

2011-08-13T16:32:00.004+03:00

No clue what's going on with the hand pumping thing, but this is one of the joys that comes from hiking very muddy, wet trails. :D

Also, the lamba (piece of fabric tied around my waist that I am sliding on) has 53 documented uses (who knows how many undocumented!). I don't know how to hike without it anymore! :-)

Oh wait. Did I just try to upload a 9-second video? Silly me - this is Madagascar!

Back in America:

:P

Prayer Request Update

2011-08-08T10:20:00.003+03:00

Above is my sweet friend and prayer warrior, Hanta. I know many of you are faithfully and specifically lifting me up, so I wanted to put these up before the busy next two weeks because “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:15-18)!

Pray for Mirana and I as we hike out to two new villages this week (Tues-Sat): Ampitambe and Vatofotsy. The chief of Vatofotsy heard us teaching a few months ago and invited us to come, but we have been unable to do so until now. Since Vatofotsy is so far away, it is very likely that many people will be hearing the Gospel for the first time. Please pray for salvations!

Pray for Mirana and I next week (Tues-Fri) as we stay in the village of Ankazotsara. There are some growing believers there, and we look forward to spending time discipling them. I’m excited to see some of the children of this village now growing up with Scripture being taught. What a blessing.

Praise the Lord that Heather and her national friend (who are living in the village of Amandrovany this month) are doing well. They have been able to begin a study through the book of John with the people there.

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in being everything I need. Pray that I would echo His faithfulness and be a diligent student of His Word, continue in prayer always, and share His truth with all that I meet.

Please continue to pray for unity for our team, health, safety, boldness, and that God would turn the hearts of the Tanala people to Him.

I appreciate you guys so much!

Battle of the Leeches

2011-08-06T08:30:00.003+03:00

Adventuring is part of my job title and life, so when the opportunity came for part of my team and a visiting friend, Sandra, to find a waterfall we had seen from afar off, I jumped at it.

Hiking deeper into the rain forest then we ever had before, sweeping away vines, canopied by lush green trees overhead, it was simply beautiful. Looking down at my ankles, I mock the bloodthirsty leeches I see crawling around my pants. “You guys are the reason I wear long pants hiking even when it’s hot. So you can’t get on my skin – ha!” Glancing at each other with sick amusement in their wicked eyes, the leeches give me an evil grin before diving THROUGH my khakis. Horrified, I yank my pant leg up just in time to see them burrow into my skin. Ow! Oh my word.

I am an emergency room nurse. I do not get squeamish at the sight of gaping wounds, burns, or vomit, but seeing multiple wriggling creatures delving through my clothes and into my skin grosses me out. And it is not only these, but with every step I take it seems another leech has jumped on for the ride. They are crawling all over me. I cannot get away. Ew ew ew!

Beauty of the canopy and vines forgotten, I now have one goal: to get to the waterfall so I can get away from leech territory, stand in the water, and yank all the repulsive pests off. Hacking through the last obstacle with his machete, our guide motions ahead. Before me is one of the most amazing waterfalls I have ever seen. The magnificence is easily worth a dozen leech bites, but…

…end of the day count was 81. And I had to pull them out or shave them off with a knife. This is not even counting the ones I nabbed before they latched their teeth into me – this tally is only from the bruises I have from them going into me. I am cringing just typing this. The picture above is of Sandra, who was brave enough to take a picture while the leeches were still on her. I did not spare a moment from removing the malevolent bloodsuckers to snap a photo, no sir-ee! Just grabbed their writhing bodies and smashed them on the rocks. Ew.

On another - and definitely more pleasant - note, I had an incredibly encouraging time in the village of Bevoahazo this week! Mirana and I were able to spend time with a believer we know there. As we warmed ourselves by the fire, we talked about the Bible. We had quieted down for only a few moments when she said, “Oh please keep talking about Jesus!” Made my heart so happy. She and her husband are building a new house and dedicating one room to prayer and Bible study for all the people in the village. We asked if she knew that this is how the first church began – in homes – and she is so excited to read through Acts to see for herself!

The next morning was drizzly and gray. We were not able to put out the word till late that we had a lesson to share, but even so, close to 70 people showed up and listened attentively (standing the whole time!) to the early-morning lesson. Afterward, I told them that this may very well be the last time I get to come to their village, as I am leaving Madagascar in October. They were very sad. One man called out his thanks for everything we have done and told me that, even though I would not be here any longer in person, I have left much behind. Oh how this warms my heart! Another person asked Mirana and I to sing them a song before we left, a request which we happily obliged. My friends, what an honor it is getting to see our awesome God work mightily in the rain forest. He is so incredible to go exceedingly abundantly above all my expectations. “Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Eph. 3:21).

How to Remove a Sand Flea

2011-08-04T09:50:00.000+03:00

By request, the 12-step program:

1. Compile your supplies: lighter, needle (if it’s not already been boiled clean – do it!), band-aid, antibiotic ointment, hydrogen peroxide, and paper towels.

2. Position yourself in a comfortable position with your affected foot up by your head in the light.

3. Poke the needle in JUST BARELY where the black spot is in the middle of the whiter bump.

4. Skim the outer layer of skin down around the bump with the needle.

5. Do number four again on a different side (like peeling an orange).

6. Do it again, being VERY careful not to puncture the white sac with the parasite and eggs/baby parasites inside (depending on the stage in which you noticed said sac).

7. After your skin has been peeled back from around the sac, loosen the sac from underneath until it is just hanging by a thread.

8. Snap the last thread with the needle while raising the sac upwards on the end of the needle.

9. Grab the lighter and burn the evil pest and sac, putting the remains in one paper towel and placing the needle on the other.

10. Inspect area to make sure no particles of sac got left behind.

11. Cleanse with hydrogen peroxide.

12. Dab area dry and apply antibiotic ointment with band-aid.

Repeat as needed. :-)

Witches and Witch Doctors

2011-07-28T14:23:00.003+03:00

Tidbits you may or may not know about Malagasy witches:

1. Witches can turn bandits into rats, if they are being pursued. This actually works in favor of the bandits, as no one can catch them as rats.
2. Witches get their power from the ancestral spirits (principalities of the dark).
3. Witches learn how to be witches by training with another witch or having a dream that tells them how to be one.
4. Witches can be male or female (same for witch doctors).
5. Witches are the reason people don’t like to walk at night because they jump on people and ride on their backs, controlling them, until the person collapses in exhaustion or death.

My Malagasy friends were filling me in on all things witches, the other day, on the way to the village of Amandrovany. It seems everyone has a witch story that has happened to a friend (or friend of a friend of a friend). Upon arriving in the village, I found my old friend Dada Be (a witch doctor) confused about the origins of “his” power and, sadly, having no clue what is going to happen to him when he dies. He thinks this lack of understanding is both normal and unavoidable.

People come from hours away to bring Dada Be to their houses because he gets possessed by a spirit that can heal broken bones. If they can’t bring him to their house, they bring a small container for his spit; because they believe even that has healing qualities.

Dada Be is tired, mostly deaf, and knows he is close to death. He would like to pass this spirit onto his grandson, but his grandson is unsure. He is hesitant to accept the spirit because the process of passing it from one person to another involves a bone needing to be broken in his own family. Dada Be believes the spirit is good, because it instructs him in dreams and tells him not to accept money for the healing services. When I ask him what the spirit tells him about Jesus, he won’t answer. When I ask him what he believes about Jesus, he can’t/won’t say. He just admits, “I have no idea what will happen to me when I die.”

I know that Jesus came “to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79). This is good news that I couldn’t keep inside. I shared the gospel with him and he looked at me, blankly. After a minute, he hobbled over to get more wood for the fire. He understood the words, but not that this is life-changing truth. “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5).

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” I urge you to read the entire passage of 2 Cor. 3:12-4:6 and pray for Dada Be and the people of the rain forest whose eyes are still veiled in darkness.

Conquering the Mountain

2011-07-18T08:57:00.010+03:00

Peering over the dashboard, I dive down the extreme decline of the mountain "road." There is a cliff to my left, so I am hugging the other side that has a wall of mud. "It's okay if you want to take out the sideview mirror," my friend Tim tells me, "Just don't take us over the edge."

The powers that be have been working on a road out into the rain forest. Yesterday we decided to climb the mountain with our 4x4 truck so we didn’t have as far to hike. I got to drive! I forded small rivers, got stuck in the mud (above!) for a while, and certainly got my heart rate up, but boy was it fun! :D Thanks to all of you who give to the IMB - it was through your generosity that we were supplied with this cool truck to make it over the mountain. :)

A Jaunt to the North

2011-07-13T09:39:00.012+03:00

Thank you all for praying for my trip. Diego Suarez is a city in northern Madagascar where I was able to visit and minister with some dear co-workers who live there. Here are some highlights from our days!

Tuesday, June 28th – the airline called the night before and told me that my flight, which was originally scheduled for 3:30pm, but had been changed to 9am, was now scheduled to leave at 1:40pm. I got to the airport by 12:30pm and the flight ended up taking off at 4pm. Welcome to domestic Madagascar flights! :P Below is an island just off the coast of Diego considered sacred to the ancestors.

Wednesday, June 29th – with a busy week ahead, the precious missionary couple who live in Diego (Michael & Michelle Allen) and I decided to prepare with a relaxing day at the beach. It was wonderful!

Thursday, June 30th – Michelle and I had a great opportunity to teach two English classes at the local university. I was encouraged at the interest the students had not only in medical, but also in spiritual things. After our lecture, we were thrilled to answer the students’ questions, “Why should we pray to Jesus?” and “How can I have a relationship with Jesus?”

Friday, July 1st – we spent this morning inviting people to our medical conference the next day (below is the neighborhood we walked through). I was humored by the fliers we passed out. In the local dialect they said, “There is a nurse from America here to teach us,” but in MY dialect it said, “There is an American leper nurse here to teach us.” Ha ha ha! This afternoon we went to the market and I did NOT get hit by the lady who notoriously runs around the market hitting people. Success! :-)

Saturday, July 2nd – We had our conference at the local Baptist church. Michelle and I taught medical lessons with Biblical stories and truths, and Michael shared the gospel. I was encouraged with how attentively people listened and how readily they asked questions! This guy's helping us out with the nutrition lesson. :)
Sunday, July 3rd – Heather arrived! Thank you so much for praying for healing for her. We thought she would not be able to come at all, but God orchestrated it so she could come for the last half of the trip! This is her and our guide headed out to a village in the north.

Monday, July 4th – we took a two hour journey (by truck) south to the village of Mahamasina where we would have our next medical conference. Before walking out to the village to visit with people and invite them to come the next day, I got a special treat to go see Park Antakarana, one of the few places in the world with tsingy rock (you can see it behind Michelle and I in the picture below). We also saw over a dozen lemurs playing in the trees. They are so cute!

Tuesday, July 5th – more people showed up for the village medical conference than the one we had in the city! I was surprised and glad. I'm teaching about disease transmission in the photo below. Later that day, Michael led a Bible study with the local believers. Please pray that this small group meeting in the village of Mahamasina one day becomes a church!
Wednesday, July 6th – since Heather came we needed to show her the beach, of course! This time we not only spent time chatting on the beach and swimming, but enjoyed GREAT snorkeling and kayaking, too!

Thursday, July 7th – before we flew back to the capital city, we went back to the university to teach the two English classes again. My favorite question from a student this day is, “Why does eating peanuts make me angry?” We wondered if it was a sounds-alike issue and he meant hungry… “No, I get angry every time I eat them.” A nervous feeling like an allergic reaction? A traumatic memory while eating nuts? “No. Eating nuts just makes me mad at my friends.” Okaaaay… I was reminded once more that I do not know the answers to all of life’s questions! :P

This week you can pray for Mirana and I as we hike out, and for Heather as she continues to fully recuperate. Our team is going to celebrate a belated 4th of July party this week, as well. Please continue to lift us up that we would be of one mind (Philippians 1:27), encouraging each other on to good works (Hebrews 10:24).

I love you all!
Cara :)

“Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Our God is the God of salvation; and to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.” Psalm 68:19-20

A Conversation with the Postman

2011-06-27T23:04:00.005+03:00

I am sitting in the telecenter trying to load my email. I’ve been here for 45 minutes and the telecenter has been blaring Miley Cyrus the whole time. This is my third time to hear “The Climb.” I feel like I’ve been up this mountain before… :P

“Hello?” A face pops up in the window. The postman. “Well hello,” I reply. “How are you?” Grinning widely he says, “It came!” “The package from my mom?” I query. “Yes!” “Well praise Jesus,” I say. “I’ll come over when I’m done with the internet and get it.” His face fell. “Oh please come now. I’m going to close up early to go eat lunch, but I wanted to make sure you got it today.” I stand. Of course I will.

Walking me to the post office (a couple buildings away), the postman tilts his head and looks at me thoughtfully. “You know, when you came to the post office yesterday and the package was not there, you said you prayed that it would get here soon. Just now when I told you it came, you praised Jesus. I think God heard your prayer and answered it. Tell me, what is your religion?”

He listened attentively as I told him of my relationship with Jesus. He said he would like to come worship at our church next Sunday, so I invited him to bring his whole family.

Y’all, praise GOD for bringing glory to Himself. The fact that I had said those things did not even cross my mind. I was forgetful, but this man was listening. What a good reminder that people are watching even the little things that we do – beloved, let us live like it!

“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one” Colossians 4:5-6.

Prayer requests:
1. My friend Heather is sick. Please pray for complete healing for her.
2. I will be in Diego (northern Madagascar) June 28th-July 7th working with a sweet missionary couple. We’ll be putting on a medical/Bible lesson conference, teaching English, and doing village ministry. Please pray that those we come in contact with will understand the Truth of our message, that it will penetrate their hearts, and that many would come to believe on Jesus.
Praises:
1. For great times of fellowship with our national partners and other believers here in the rain forest, and for neat God-appointed opportunities to share Jesus with those we have come in contact with.
2. For safety in our many travels (hiking and driving!) and continued health for me. Actually, this one can stay on praise AND prayer request! :-)

I love you all,
Cara :)
Numbers 6:24-26

P.S. The first picture is of the Malagasy flag. Yesterday was their Independence Day. I wore red, white, and green for the celebration. My Malagasy friends giggled and informed me that the party color was orange. LOL! Who knew?

Persecution of the Saints

2011-06-16T17:34:00.004+03:00

When we Americans hear about believers being persecuted, we generally turn our minds toward the Arab and Asian nations, and think of people killed for converting to Christianity or getting kicked out of the country. The difficulty in living as a follower of Jesus here is more subtle. In Madagascar, everything is governed by your tribe’s fady (taboos), and everything revolves around community. If you accept Jesus and start living for Him, you will break the fady of your tribe (many fady are full of ancestor worship) and thus get cast out of community. A new believer is struggling with this very thing right now.

Hiking to visit the new believer, I nearly leap to the side of the path to avoid a snake, but remember just in time how narrow the path and steep the mountainside is! The new believer’s husband leads Mirana and I, boulder jumping and wading, across the river to their hut.

Husband seated behind her, the new believer tells us how grateful she is that we have come. “Everyone in the village thinks that I am adaladala [crazy], and you are the only ones who think that I am wise.” We only know of her and two other believers in this village of two hundred fifty, and there is definitely a daily clash between the believers’ new lives and the old fady way that everyone else is living. Her old friends have been even more up in arms recently about her decision to live for Jesus because of her decision for her son not to participate in the village circumcision rite due to the ancestor worship involved. She feels exiled and disheartened.

“My brother came to me when he heard of our decision. I told him why we were not worshipping the ancestors anymore, but Jesus. He told me he understood, but said that I should know that if we didn’t do the circumcision rite with everyone else, that everyone would believe we wanted to always be alone and leave us like that. That if something happens to my family – like a death – no one will come.”

She and her husband have also decided to completely change crops this season. Until now, they have been growing sugar cane, used in this area for making moonshine or to sell so other people can make it. “We’ve prayed about it, and feel like God is telling us not to be a part of making people drink alcohol anymore,” I ask her if that will put a financial hardship on them, because I know that they are already living at a day-to-day level. “Yes it will,” she responds, “but we have faith that Jesus will provide for us in this hard time because He has called us to do it.”

This dear woman is such an encouragement to me. Praise the Lord for her faith. What evidence that Jesus Christ is worth it all – though friends and family reject you, though you have no idea how you will be able to buy food the next day – knowing Him is your life (John 17:3).

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” 2 Timothy 1:12

Much love,
Cara :)
Psalm 43:3-5

Breast Milk Miracle

2011-06-06T10:25:00.002+03:00

She leans around her mom, catches my eye, and giggles. I hide behind Mirana for a few seconds, then poke my head out, looking straight at her with a funny face. She bursts into laughter. I’m playing peek-a-boo in a hut with a three-year-old girl named Fara. She was initially scared out of her mind when she saw me, but is now getting up her courage (within the safety of her mom’s reach, of course) to interact with the vazaha.

Pausing our game, she grabs her mother’s breast out from under her shirt and starts drinking. “How old are you?” Mirana asks Fara’s mom. Not a rude question here in Madagascar! :P “In my 50’s,” comes the answer. Looking down at the girl she confides, “I’m not her birth mom.” She stepped in to help after her sister-in-law died giving birth. When she brought Fara into their home, her biological children ranged in age from eleven to mid-twenties.

Which begs a question: How can a woman have breast milk for a child that is not her own if she weaned her youngest biological child years ago?

While I wonder if this question would be culturally appropriate to ask, Mirana pipes up. “How’d you get your breast milk to come in?” I guess it is okay to ask. :P Fara’s mom looks at us, confused. “I went and lay down in bed as if I had just given birth. Fara was placed in my arms. I was given chicken broth to drink, like all new mothers, and so it just came in.”

Now it was my turn for mind to be befuddled. Wait just a minute now. Breast milk doesn’t come because you cuddle a newborn. It certainly doesn’t come because you drink chicken broth! What about the endocrine system – pregnancy hormones? Ever hear of lactogenesis?!

Had she possibly gotten pregnant herself before she adopted Fara? No, she chuckled. She can sense that I am trying to figure this out in my mind, so explains. “I just acted like her mom and the milk came in.”

Does my medically-trained mind understand this? No. Have we exhausted all possible other things it could have been? No. But at the time when newborn Fara needed a mommy, her new mommy was given milk to provide for her. Praise God.

Volunteers, Roof Project, and a New Village!

2011-06-04T14:18:00.003+03:00

(Sandy, one of our translators, at the school site)

Decision point: what would you do? The hut you are sleeping in is hot and stuffy. It’s hard to sleep. You can choose to get out of your sleeping bag for comfort, but with that, run the risk of rats nibbling at your toes. They’ve already run over your friend’s feet…

We had a good time with our volunteer team, and are praising the Lord for the abundant Gospel sowing that went on while they were here. We already know of three people who have accepted Jesus after hearing the message proclaimed! The Foibe Roof for the Children project has begun, and has provided us with many opportunities for evangelism and relationship building. Right now, it looks like the entire building will be finished mid-June. We were there last week, and are planning another trip to help with the completion! :) This last week we had the neat opportunity to teach the teacher how to teach the Bible and incorporate it into the children’s daily lessons!

Sitting in the hut of the chief of Foibe, he told us we were doing the right thing by spending time with the people, because developing relationships is the only way the people will ever trust us. Even now, over 50 years after Madagascar won their independence, the people still think every white person is a French colonizer coming to make them work or to kill them. Only in the last few years have they stopped fearing even the footprints of the foreigners (evident, of course, because we wear shoes ;).

Flies buzzing around us as we shell beans, the chief’s teenage daughter tells me she didn’t like the fighting in the movie we showed (the Jesus film). She didn’t understand why Jesus had to die. She certainly wouldn’t and couldn’t have died for the world. I walk her through The Story from creation to Christ, emphasizing our need for a perfect blood sacrifice. A basket full of beans later, she looks me in the eye, “It’s clear now!” Oh, how we are praying that many more understand why our Lord had to die and what His victory over death means for believers today!

A lot of people here take tobacco, an expensive (and dangerous) addiction. They put it in powder form between their bottom teeth and lip or in the sides of their mouth, many times a day. Children as young as one year old see their parents doing this and are invited to do the same. One girl I talked with told me that when she was four or five she got terribly ill. Her parents came to her and said, “If you can take tobacco, we know you will live. But if you do not, we will accept the fact now that you are going to die. Frightened, she stuffed it in her mouth. Now over a decade later she says, “To me, tobacco is life.”

Along with this trip to Foibe, we also assessed a new village called Beremby this week. “We’ve never known a missionary before and don’t know what they do,” they tell us. Upon being asked what they think missionaries should do, they replied that missionaries should lead people to worship. One man replied, “I think there should be many missionaries because many people here do not understand how or why to worship God.” Praise the Lord, many in the village expressed a keen interest in studying the Bible with our team!

The people in Beremby evidenced that do not know how to worship God. They believe “the ancestral spirits deserve respect just like God. We pray to them like we pray God – only on Sundays we pray to God, but when there are special events or important times we pray to the ancestors.”

Worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25) has brought them no hope. Just like us, who through God’s mercy and grace were once far off, but now have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13), we cry out to our precious Lord to reconcile the Tanala people to Himself (Eph. 2:16) so that they might know how and why to worship Him in spirit and in truth for His glory (John 4:23-24). He is worthy!

Ever thankful for your prayers,
Cara :)
Job 19:25-27

P.S. Oh, about the decision point? I chose the heat. :-)

A Roof for the Children

2011-05-24T11:42:00.003+03:00

Quick update: this last week with our volunteer team went great! More to come!

The team gearing up to hike out to Foibe. :D

EDIT: and by "more to come," I mean we're hiking back out to Foibe AND a brand new village Tuesday through Saturday, so next week we should have news to share! :D

Belated Mother's Day Special

2011-05-11T09:11:00.003+03:00

To start out, this is the best mother ever right here:

I have been praying for a young man I know down here in the rain forest. He claims to be a Christian, but has been grieving his parents’ hearts because he has not been living like a follower of Christ should. Arriving at their house one day, I saw him and gasped.

Face covered in wounds, shoulder looking very much like Wesley’s in The Princess Bride after being attacked by an R.O.U.S., the young man looks at me. “I got in an accident.” Leaning over too far on one of the curvy roads here, his motorcycle went crashing to the ground. It was a miracle he was not hurt worse. “I am so sorry this happened to you!” I exclaimed, while asking him all about his injuries. “It’s really a good thing,” the young man replied. “Lying in the road flat on my back, I rededicated my life to Jesus. I’ve quit smoking, quit drinking, and I am going to live for Jesus.”

His mom ran out and wrapped me in a huge hug. “Isn’t it wonderful?” She asked. “Now I know that all of my children are going to heaven.” One week to the day before the accident, his mother had been praying for him. She read this passage from Hebrews 12:

“For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?...For [our human fathers] indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but [God] for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

“Lord, my son says he is your follower, but here he is doing all of these things not fitting for a Christian. If he is really your son, then please discipline him like You say you will in order to bring back him to you.” Looking at his face today she cannot help but think that she is in some way responsible. “I prayed for it and it happened.” She looks up at my face (because I am a foot taller than everyone here :P) guiltily.

“This physical pain that your son is in is temporary, but spiritual change lasts forever,” I say. “You are a great mom to pray for your child’s relationship with Jesus.” She grins, grabs my hands, and we jump around like schoolgirls, praising God for His love that brings us to repentance.

Mothers, pray for your children. For all of us, PRAISE THE LORD! He has provided a Way for us to become His beloved children! “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

Please pray for us as we head out to the village of Foibe this Wednesday, May 18th, with a volunteer team from the states. By helping in building a much-needed school for the children and sharing life with the villagers, our desire is to show the love of Christ so that they, too, may become children of God. Take some time today to share with people you meet of the love which your Father has given you!

Cockroaches

2011-05-06T14:35:00.002+03:00

I am thinking about cockroaches today because one stared me down throughout lunch today, just daring me to come at him. I ignored him until I finished my lunch, determined that the enjoyment of my delicious chicken jambalaya burritos would not be disturbed by the likes of him.

I’m no expert, but I do live in the home of hissing cockroaches. The island of Madagascar, that is, not my hotel home specifically. The hotel itself is very clean, there’s just nothing you can do to fully keep those creepy crawlers out.

Downstairs there is a keyboard. My friend was having a hard time playing it, so took it apart to see what was broken. Nothing was broken. The keyboard was full of dead cockroaches. He removed them and the keyboard went back to playing without issue. Ew.

I lived my entire life thinking cockroaches would only come if there was food or dirt for them. This is incorrect. While those might draw them more mightily, they also show up in my MEDICAL cabinet. These bottles of meds are sealed and plastic. Where is the draw in that??? Our stored food is all sealed or in gallon Ziplock bags and they still nose around in there at night. They don’t get anything; they’re just rude.

There are multiple kinds of cockroaches in Madagascar. How do I know this? I have heard hissing cockroaches fight in my kitchen. Hissing cockroaches do not fly. I was dive-bombed by a flying cockroach last night. Thus, there must be more than just the hissers.

These are a few of my cockroach thoughts that I decided to share with you. Hope they enhanced your day. ;)

Is Your Gospel Little or Big?

2011-05-05T09:44:00.008+03:00

This was the question posed to me by my waitress at breakfast. She had complimented me on how well I spoke Malagasy and I told her the reason I studied so hard was so I could share the gospel with people.

“Is your gospel little or big?”

What an interesting query. The gospel is the single most important (biggest) thing ever, yet simple (little) in its requirements. Romans 10:9 – “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” We have little (Eph. 2:8-9) to do because God did the hard (big) thing for us (Rom. 5:8-11, Heb. 9:12). [God doing the saving and not our human works is important to note here in Mada where legalism is prevalent. They will say "Yes, Jesus saves, but then you need to do these five steps every day for the rest of your life to make sure you actually make it into heaven." No, His GRACE is enough!]

These were some of the thoughts flitting through my head as I determined how to answer her. In the end, I decided to share the whole gospel with her and let her decide its size.

After listening intently to the presentation of the gospel, this sweet woman asked again. “Is your gospel little or big?” I look at her and say, “What do you believe?” To which she answers, “I believe what you say is true.” I rejoice inwardly. Then it comes again. “Is your gospel little or big?”

I look at her, silent, asking God for wisdom to know where to go next with this conversation, when she releases me from my confusion. “I mean, do you just have the New Testament and Psalms, or do you have the whole Bible?”

OOOHHHHHH!

My cultural/language comprehension gets a poor report today, but the opportunity to share the gospel outweighs it all. Praise the Lord.
_________________________________________________________________

Praises:

My parents and little brother came and visited me last week. It was wonderful. It was such a blessing to me (and many others) that they took the time, money, and bravery to come, quite literally, to the ‘ends of the earth.’ I really enjoyed BEING with them and getting to talk whenever we wanted to. I loved seeing my mom and dad share the truth of God’s Word with a whole village, and then later attempt to explain what a trombone is. :-) I was able to introduce my little brother to crocodile meat and whop him and my parents in Nertz (okay, so maybe “whop” is a bit of an exaggeration ;).

For precious times with my Lord. He has proved Himself awesome, worthy, and faithful time and time again. What a wonderful Saviour we serve!

Prayer requests:

We have a volunteer team coming this month (can y’all believe it’s MAY already?!). They will be going out to the village of Foibe with us to work on our Roof for the Children project. Please pray that God’s name would be lifted high as we help the village build a school for their children, do children programs, and build relationships.

For God’s continued leading (Psalm 43:3-5) in planning both my last few months here and what comes next in my future.

I love you all!
Cara :)
Jude 24-25

All in a Day's Drive

2011-05-02T09:58:00.010+03:00

Driving here is fun. Nail-biting at times for my passengers, I'm sure, but fun nonetheless. I have NO doubt God has stopped more accidents than we will ever know, praise Him for His power!

It is gorgeous ALL the way during the 10 hour drive down to the rain forest.

We stop for zebu frequently. :P

Smiley face skull & crossbones warns in French of a dangerous descent. :-)

People are always walking alongside [and in] the streets – and yes, they are talented enough to carry large things on their heads WHILE doing so!

This is the capital city 10 hours north which is NOT my favorite to drive in!

You brought a couple extra bags, farm animals, and a motorcycle? No problem - we can fit it on! :D

Oops – how did THIS one get on here??? :-) I just love Heather. :D

A Trip to the Post Office

2011-04-16T16:37:00.007+03:00

Today I decided to mail two postcards. The nearest post office is in Ranomafana, the next town over. On the way from my room to the car, three people asked me what I was doing and subsequently helped themselves to the postcards in my hand. “Oh, sure, you can look at those…” Actually they probably can’t even read Malagasy, let alone English, but hey – there are pictures! :P By now I am completely fine with the fact that anything done outside my home IS everyone’s business. ;)

About 60 seconds before you get to the post office, there is a police checkpoint. I smile and salute at the three policemen chilling on the side of the road. They smile and salute back, waving me on.

Pulling my silver Corolla up to the post office, there is a group of about fifteen guys outside that I have not seen before. Staring at me, of course (the obvious foreigner). Getting out of my car I sent forth greetings to them all, “Akoriabe!” To this a guy replied, “You have a very nice smell.”

Hmm.

How he knew this from twenty feet away I had no idea. I did shower this morning, but was not wearing any scents or such. I was a bit confused, but, as I rarely get complimented in English down here in the rain forest, said “Thank you” anyway. It was then that the man motioned to my face – “Yes, a very nice smile.” Ohhh…gotcha! lol. Smell, smile, gotta love the accents!

Upon entering the building, my postman friend took the postcards, commented on the photos, flipped them over, and read them (this makes person #4!). Since he’s practicing his English, it’s perfectly natural to read other people’s mail, right?! Then he went to the ominous back room to start the ten minute process of finding out which stamps they had and how he could possibly fulfill my request to send postcards to America. During this back room time, yet another person came up and took my postcards to inspect (this guy was filling out some sort of official-looking paperwork). I chatted with him for a little while and he said my Malagasy was very good for only living here for a year and a half. I told him I studied very hard because I want to share the gospel with the people here and up in the mountains and his face brightened up. He said he also believed in Jesus and lived and went to church in another town, so was very glad to hear that there were people here proclaiming the Good News.

Coming back with three stamps (to total about one US dollar), my post office friend and I licked them together, stuck them on each postcard, and dropped them in the box. The “real” mailman comes twice a week to drop off and pick up mail, so by Tuesday they should be heading out! :-)

Just another average errand run!

Oh, and did I mention my FAMILY is coming to visit me TOMORROW?!?!?!?!?! :D

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Give - Pray - Go

2011-04-09T23:43:00.004+03:00

"I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages - villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world."
- Robert Moffat

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."
- Charles Spurgeon

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell."
- C.T. Studd

"'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of Hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world."
- William Booth

“You can’t take the gospel to the wrong address.”
- Anonymous

"I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with lights."
- Ion Keith-Falconer

"The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathan; he is useful and does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord."
- Oswald Chambers

The Power of Prayer

2011-04-01T22:58:00.005+03:00

“I told you not to bring the witch doctor here!”

A woman attending our church (let’s call her Beauty) has a husband who has been sick for five days with a fever. He has gotten so ill that he lapses into times of unconsciousness. Beauty’s friends encourage her to send for the witch doctor. She refuses, claiming they no longer do that since they follow Jesus now. When Beauty leaves the house to go get food, the friends ignore her request and bring the witch doctor to the man’s bedside.

Beauty returns as the witch doctor is putting a poultice on her husband’s bare abdomen. Horrified, she cries out, “I told you not to bring the witch doctor here! You should not have done this!” As the witch doctor spreads the poultice, her husband goes into convulsions. Beauty runs out the door and heads to the house of our pastor and his wife.

- - - We interrupt this story with a quick note: our pastor’s wife has been visiting the town where Beauty and her husband live regularly, sharing the gospel in people’s homes. The townspeople have been nice, but not very receptive. The pastor’s wife is on her knees daily praying for the people of this area. Now back to our story… - - -

Arriving at the pastor’s house, Beauty frantically tells them what is happening. They all stop and pray. They pray for the healing of her husband. They pray that the witch doctor will be gone by the time they get back to the house. Lifting their heads, the three of them then walk back to the woman’s house.

Ducking down to enter the wooden hut, they first notice the absence of the witch doctor. Beauty goes over to her husband and behold, the Great Healer has moved and he is better – no convulsions, no unconsciousness, no fever! Praise the Lord!

Beauty’s friends stand wide-eyed in the corner of the hut. The pastor’s wife looks over at them. “If you want me to, I will come tomorrow and share with you what God’s Word says about witch doctors.”

When the next day arrives, the pastor’s wife heads back to the hut, Bible in hand. Her heart leaps as she sees the place FILLED with people who are eager to listen. She opens the Word and begins to read God’s Truth to them.

“We didn’t know!” the people cry out. “We didn’t know God did not want us to do those things.” Deeply moved, they begin to pray and sing in response to hearing the Word of God. “Please come next week and teach us more about how God wants us to live,” they beg the pastor’s wife. Amazed, the pastor’s wife praises the Lord in her heart. So many hours praying for these people. So many hours visiting with these people, sharing the gospel. And now, God has chosen to demonstrate His power and people are hungry to hear more. Praise His name!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me share this with you. I have not been overwhelmed by the spiritual darkness here like so many have. Not because I am impervious to it, or because I am a ‘super Christian’, but by the power and grace of God moving in my life because of your prayers! You have asked for this, and that hearts would be prepared ahead of time to hear God’s Word. That they have! My friends, thank you. God is so good.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7

You can also be praying for me in the next step God would have me to take. I know six months seems like a long time, but it is just flying by. I am content to wait for God to tell me what to do next (Psalm 27:14), but would like to hear His voice clearly and be obedient to follow whatever He asks me to do. :)

I love you all,
Cara :)
Isaiah 40:3-5, 27-31

10 Talents

2011-03-26T13:16:00.003+03:00

As we head to South Africa for a cluster meeting and community development/disaster relief training, I have been reflecting on some of the skills Madagascar has been teaching me over the last year and a half. Due to my time here on the island, I can now:

1. Divide by 2000 very, very quickly. The exchange rate between Malagasy ariary and US dollar fluctuates, but is always in the general vicinity of 2000ar/dollar.

2. Drive stick shift on sketchy (curve, pothole, animal, and people-filled) roads. And how try to “counter-attack” start the car while someone (Heather - ha ha!) pushes the car…in the rain…great friend. :-)

3. Kill roaches (and other such various and sundry disgusting creatures) without yelling, “Daaadddddyyy!” Although I expect to revert RIGHT back to my old ways whenever he or my little brother are around. *grin*

4. Speak Malagasy. Yeah, that’s a pretty big one. I am not “fluent” by any means, but it still thrills my heart to see the surprise and joy that comes across the peoples’ faces here when they realize I am speaking their heart language.

5. Dig out sand fleas from peoples’ feet (my own included – and that, my friends, takes talent. ;), give IV meds by candlelight, create and teach medical lessons, and other such odd medical talents. :P

6. Not stop at police checkpoints. Legally! It’s a fine art and I’m not quite 100% yet, but if you don’t make eye contact till the right time and then smile and wave while not slowing down, 9 times out of 10 the police will wave you on through. When my parents and little brother come next month, I’m going to try for a 100%. Not because I am scared of the police, but because I am scared my little brother will try to buy their AK47s off them...and succeed. ;)

7. Minimalize. When you carry out everything you need to the village, you learn how to need very little. However, our car does get quite full, still, when we do our re-stocking trips for 2-3 months at a time!

8. Be an e-pen-pal. I LOVE IT! Very few things brighten my day like getting a personal email from a friend! I love getting updates on life in America and all over the world. :0)

9. Never think normally again. Seriously, yesterday I asked Heather a question mentioning the border crossing from Kansas to Missouri. It’s up in the air whether abnormal thinking is a good or bad thing, so, being the optimist that I am, it goes here on the talent list. :D

10. Siphon gas. Again, legally. :P The closest gas station is over an hour away, so we keep some on hand in case we ever get too low to make it there! Along with the gas theme, is cooking with a gas stove/oven and learning how to change out propane tanks without blowing myself up. ;)

P.S. While holding a chameleon is something I have done first here in Madagascar, I don't exactly consider it a talent. This pic just made it up on here because I don't have one of me siphoning gas or killing bugs. :P

A Short Tale In Which I Almost Get Eaten Alive and Receive a Bouquet of Flowers

2011-03-14T19:38:00.001+03:00

An older woman in my church everyone just calls “Grandma” has been absent the last two Sundays. A couple weeks ago someone mentioned she was sick, so after she didn’t show up at church yesterday, I decided to go visit her.

Whistling gaily, I climbed the hill to her house. This is when terror struck. Well, actually six terriers. They all came running at me with the express purpose of chomping my ankles off. Sure, there were a lot of them, but I knew I could kick them away to save my life, if need be. Then came a growl and a deep bark. I slowly raised my head from the throngs of yappy dogs to see a huge German shepherd bounding towards me.

Now before you bite your nails or pee in your pants in anxiety, I didn’t die. There was no blood loss. No pain. For while I was contemplating whether to climb a tree or jump onto a large object, the smallest, sweetest woman you can imagine saved my life by calling off the dogs.

Heart still pounding, I chatted with this woman for a few minutes (she’s Grandma’s housekeeper) till Grandma heard me outside and invited me in with a booming voice. “MONDROSOA!” Forty-five minutes of very animated conversation later, I said I needed to go home. On my way out, she responded as excitedly to my passing comment of “that’s a pretty red flower” as she did to my entire visit, quickly calling to her housekeeper “bring the shears!” Snipping away, she cut some flowers out of her garden to make me a bouquet. Which is now on my kitchen table.

As I turned to leave (again), Grandma wrapped her arm around my waist in a gesture of true friendship and started walking me down the hill. I returned the gesture, wrapping my arm around her, in friendship, yes, but mainly so the German shepherd wouldn’t eat me on my way out.

Good to the Last Drop

2011-03-12T09:57:00.001+03:00

Sweat glistening on our brows, my Malagasy friend, Mirana (pictured above), and I drag ourselves into the village of Ambohinihaonana. We plop down, our backs resting on a mud hut. The 22 kilometer trek to get here has been arduous, yet full of good conversation. Parched, I reach around my side to grab the water bottle from my backpack; I see movement out of the corner of my eye and stop.

A little old woman, hunched over a tray, is shuffling our way. On the tray are two cups of coffee - steaming and looking very black. I don’t know if y’all know this, but I do NOT like coffee. I enjoy the aroma, but the bitter taste – ugh! No sir, not for me! Not even a caramel macchiato can disguise it. And have I mentioned that it is HOT and HUMID and we have been hiking for hours?! A war begins in my mind.

“How can I get out of drinking that coffee?” “Come on, Cara, you can’t tell a sweet old woman ‘no’ when she’s being so nice!” “But I don’t want it!” “This relationship is more important than your soon-to-be damaged taste buds.”

“It’s the chief’s wife,” Mirana whispers to me. Even better. There is no way I am going to refuse the hospitality of this woman. Reaching out my hands to accept the token of welcome, I slowly take a breath and bring the cup to my lips.

*GULP*

One sip down. Oh my goodness. I might not be able to do this. Can she just turn around for a second so I can dump this out? No? Masking the turmoil going on inside my mouth, I smile at the woman and say thank you. I take another gulp. I am seriously disgusted (yet at the same time, honored at this gesture of kindness. This sweet elderly woman had no idea the havoc this would wreak within me). Glancing over at Mirana’s empty cup, I make the decision to be a terrible friend.

“Oh you finished! Would you like the rest of mine?” The grin was still plastered on my face, but my eyes were pleading for a way out. Recognizing my plights, a wonderful girl name Mirana said, “Sure.” I decide right then and there that she is my best friend for life. *grin*
----------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, okay, so this drama-filled story was (in the grand scheme of things) really not that bad. It wasn’t blood chunks or intestines I had to choke down, just coffee. However it wasn’t something I wanted to happen. Certainly not something I enjoyed doing. But definitely worth it to develop a relationship with this woman who I could later tell of my Jesus. My Savior is worth any inconvenience, momentary or not.

Something God has been showing me lately is how worth it all He is. In the little things and the big things. The things that “go wrong,” that I would rather not have happen, things that are downright painful, He is completely, totally, utterly, hands-down WORTH IT ALL.

Now don’t get me wrong – life is good! I still love it here in Mada and being blessed beyond imagination. It is just so true that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). My friends, because of this truth, we should be living lives that by words and deeds proclaim that Jesus Christ is worthy!!!

Pray for me, that I might walk worthy of God who has called me, live every moment for His glory and good pleasure, and increase in the knowledge of Him (I Thess. 2:12, Col. 1:10).

In Christ’s exceedingly abundant love,
Cara :)
Revelation 5

I will also leave you with the chorus of a great hymn:

It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ;
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrows will erase,
So gladly run the race till we see Christ!

Oh my

2011-03-08T14:35:00.003+03:00

How did I turn around and it was March 8th already?!?! Sorry blog readers everywhere, for my absence. I hope to rectify the situation shortly... :-)

Good and Dangerous

2011-02-15T12:16:00.006+03:00

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 145:3

I do not claim to be an expert on any of these cultures at all. Just wanted to share a few glimpses from our vacation experiences…

*The Middle East*

Taking a break from playing with her dolls, the three-year-old girl is struck by a thought. “Jews do not love the Qur’an.” “That’s right, dear,” her grandmother replies, “So where does that mean they go?” Curly head tilted up, the girl replies, “To hell.”

This interlude occurred as Heather and I were visiting with a Palestinian refugee family. It was interesting getting to see how a traditional Muslim family entertains guests, with hospitality being such a vital part of the culture. I, personally, love that aspect of Middle Eastern living! We arrived mid-afternoon and were ushered into a separate room where we could talk with the ladies of the home. We were soon made to eat MORE than a full meal regardless of the fact that we had just had a delicious lunch AND had supper plans. :P The family made us feel very welcome, but, as the conversation progressed my heart, was heavy seeing how blinded these women to the truth of who my Jesus is. Please ask our Father to open the eyes of Muslims around the world to His truth and show His glory among them.

*Spain*

Not only is it culturally expected that you look super cute every time you walk out of your door, but most people in Spain are offended if you ask them about their spiritual beliefs without having a very good relationship with them first. While politics and intimate romantic details can be first time conversation pieces, you couldn’t possibly be so impudent ask someone if they know God!

*North Africa*

In this beautiful land it is inexcusable to both the government and people if a Muslim becomes a believer, but God is at work. I was blessed to be able to speak with a national believer. He did not claim life was easy, but told me instead of the greatness of our God in the midst of persecution. Stories of secret police being blinded to Bibles laying in plain sight and groups gathered to baptize new believers. Of a Muslim woman, barren for eight years, begging for prayer from a believer because “Jesus answers.” The woman is now pregnant. As I heard these things, my heart was gladdened and encouraged and I exclaimed, “God is so good!” The believer looked at me and explained that there is a phrase he uses in Arabic about God in these situations. There is no direct translation, but the closest it comes out to is “God is so dangerous.”

I love C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a girl asks about Aslan (the God figure in the series) – as to whether He is safe. “Safe?” Comes the reply. “Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

My friends, our God is unfathomably great. And we have the utmost joy and privilege to serve a God who is not “safe,” but dangerous and good. “[God] who does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number” (Job 5:9). This is the One we serve.

Updated Prayer Requests

2011-02-15T12:14:00.000+03:00

1. Next week a man will be coming to help us by recording God’s Story (basically a Creation to Christ audio Bible story presentation) in the heart language of the Malagasy. Pray that this would be done with accuracy so the Word can be clearly communicated to many!

2. It is raining…a lot. :-) We praise the Lord for the rain because the people and crops definitely need it, but would like you to pray with us for the safety of the people in their flimsy huts as storms (tropical cyclone Bingiza was the latest) hit.

3. In April and May we are having people come minister with us. Please pray that God would be glorified through all the preparations for these times.

4. For the Newtons as they travel back in a couple weeks after completing their stateside assignment. Thank you all for praying for Jeremy’s leg. The doctors say it is healing quickly and we give God all the glory for that!

Once Upon a Time

2011-02-14T13:23:00.002+03:00

A Valentine’s Tale

Once upon a time a girl had a dream. She dreamed about her future husband. He was wearing jeans and a blue plaid shirt. She couldn’t make out his face in her dream, but knew he was out there – somewhere. So she waited in hopeful expectation until that time came…

Fast forward a decade. This girl is now a young woman, living with her sister while going to college. She is scared of the idea of a relationship and has never been on a date. Turning around in a store one day, she spies a man working there. Blue jeans, blue plaid shirt, and a kind, handsome face. He looks over and smiles. That’s him – my future husband, she thinks. She smiles, makes her purchase, and leaves.

This store is not far from her sister’s house and a couple days later (after the two sisters have been giggling every time they spot him going to and fro), the man approaches her and asks her if she would like to come over for tea. She says no, still scared, but is convinced when her sister says that she will come as well. After tea come more days filled with tea, talking, watching movies – always the three of them. After two weeks the sister refuses to join anymore. The man comes to the girl and tells her he’d like to speak with her parents. After two weeks? Eyes wide open, the girl says, “That’s not enough time – we don’t even really know each other!” “It’s enough time for me,” the man states, grinning, and the preparations for marriage begin…

Fast forward three decades. This woman and her husband retire comfortably. They ask God where He wants them to serve Him. God tells them to go to a little town in the rain forest and open up a hotel. The woman is a prayer warrior and speaks with everyone she meets about her Jesus. The man hikes out to the villages were people have not yet heard the Gospel and leads church in their hotel every Sunday morning. This sweet couple prepared rooms upstairs for two foreign girls. Girls named Cara and Heather. :)

It Matters

2011-02-10T23:50:00.004+03:00

Tonight my heart is heavy. A couple days ago we got a note from an American in the area saying he was in need of meaningful conversation and baked goods. We invited him over for dinner tonight because those we can do. :P While discussing many things, C.S. Lewis’ Lord, lunatic, or liar argument came up. Most of us are familiar with it – the idea that Jesus was either a deceiver, insane, or actually who He said He was: God’s Son, our Lord. Rejecting any of these ideas and calling the theory that Jesus actually died on the cross in order to redeem us “ridiculous,” the American said,

“Whether Jesus was Lord, lunatic, or liar, I don’t think it matters.”

He went on to explain that Jesus isn’t the way to heaven, but any way that people try to know God – through creation or whatever – God will say they’re okay. That the concepts that Jesus brought about by His teachings are far more important than the supposition that He died on a cross.

“Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other Name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

"And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." I John 2:2

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:8-11

Oh it matters, friend. It matters.

What a Riot

2011-02-02T22:08:00.002+03:00

“Your flight is canceled.” The airline representative in her crisp suit informs us, expressionless. “They’re all canceled. The Cairo airport is closed.”

Our day didn’t begin like this. Just this morning Heather and I were flying home from a wonderful, relaxing vacation. We have a 12 hour layover in Egypt, so decided to sight see, of course! :P We hired a taxi to take us to the pyramids, Sphinx, and Memphis. We rode camels. :0) As it came time to go to Memphis, our taxi driver said it’s too far away, would we mind going to the zoo instead? Always up for a random adventure, Heather and I said yes.

After cotton candy at the zoo, our taxi driver went into a mosque during afternoon prayer time. A couple minutes later, he came back out and asked if he could take us to the airport now. No problem, we said. Heading back, we saw policemen with guns and shields lining up in the city square. Minutes later, as afternoon prayers ended, the protesters came out and flooded the streets. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons were used in the attempt to control the “Friday of Wrath” as it has hence become known. And yes, by the grace and protection of God by the taxi cab driver He sent to be with us, we missed the mayhem by minutes.

Although we were in the front part of the airport by early afternoon, we could not get our boarding pass until 8pm (by Cairo rules you can’t sign in until three hours before your flight). You can’t get through security and immigration to the “real” part of the airport unless you have your boarding pass. Heather and I passed the time napping, eating Egyptian nuts (a present from our taxi cab driver), talking and reading. 8pm brings us back to the start of our story…

The airline representative went on, explaining that the pilots were not able to get to the airport due to the rioting in the streets, and other countries canceled their flights TO Cairo. With the combo of no airplanes coming in and no pilots, everything had shut down. And here we are in no-man’s land - not in the “real” airport and not able to leave. This is when we decide we should probably get some help. :P

Using our American charm, we have an officer take us to the police station in the airport so we could use their phone. Politely refusing multiple offers of cigarettes, Heather and I explain that we would like to call a friend in South Africa who can counsel us on what to do. “It is not possible,” we were informed by the very sad guard (he really wanted to be of assistance to us damsels ;). “They have cut all international phone calls and internet. The only thing you can do is call a local number.” I smile and ask if he has the number for the US embassy. Yes, I felt very cool dialing that number. lol.

Exchanging pleasantries and vital info with the embassy representative, he expressed regret because he could not call out, either, but did say he would let anyone who called know that we were safely in the airport. He went on, “I don’t know if you can hear the gunshots and everything going on out here, but GET OUT of Egypt if you can. On any flight, however you can, GET OUT!”

This was a very nice idea, but with all flights canceled, it didn’t look like we were leaving by air, and with gunshots outside it didn’t look like we were leaving by foot. We attempted to have an officer let us through immigration to another (safer) part of the airport, but he said he would have to keep our passports if he let us through. God intervened and his general came striding over, handed us back our passports, and waved us through a back entrance without a stamp or anything of the kind. Again, amazing protection of our Father’s!

Upon entering the back part of the airport, we check with our airlines who say come back at 10am the next day and they could see then if the situation had calmed down. Heather and I had a relaxing supper and had just settled in for the night when this Italian professional boxer dude we were talking to earlier burst into the restaurant where we were and said if we ran we could catch a flight going to Johannesburg – our original flight!!!

We ran.

We made it.

It left three hours late, but we made it out of Cairo on one of the LAST flights! Praise the Lord! Some people are still stuck there!

Because we left late, we missed our connecting flight home to Madagascar. The airline said we could try standby on the next flight…24 hours later. Rather than sleeping in the Johannesburg airport, we decided to call our wonderful friend, Bob, who lives there. He and his family invited us over for a meal and got us a place to stay so we had a great night’s sleep. The next day God ever-so-awesomely made it to where we didn’t have to pay for another ticket, penalty fees, or anything for missing our flight AND we made our standby flight. Oh praise Him.

Here we are today in the rain forest after stocking up for the next couple months in the city up north. We are home and God is good. What a God of power we serve! :D

No Boys Allowed

2011-01-22T05:36:00.003+03:00

Hello friends!

I am on vacation right now and having a really, really wonderful time of refreshment. I love to travel, so it's been fun getting to see new parts of the world and SO great seeing old friends and hearing how our Lord is at work in other countries. The update below is from the trip we took out to the village of Foibe just before we left for vacation. :)

No Boys Allowed

Stooping down to exit the chief’s house after enjoying a delightful supper of hot rice and green beans, I was surprised to find people waiting for me. I mean, it’s nearly 8pm – the village bedtime. :P “We want to hear your lesson now.” Now? This is new. Others have requested 6am (yes, I did indeed teach at this should-be-sleeping hour!) or the ever-vague ‘when people get back from the fields,’ but never bedtime. “Yes, now!” They chime.

As we climb into the villages’ biggest hut, I remind them that this lesson is for the women only. The men protest. “We want to hear, too!” They even went so far as to make the excuse that “our wives are lazy and won’t remember everything! Let us listen!” As the lesson was about caring for children from birth to two years, it would be shameful to discuss with both men and women in the room, so we come to a compromise: men stay outside for the medical part of the lesson and then come in for the Bible part. The men sighed as they mostly aquiested to my request [I saw a few rebels peering in the door, lol]. When the men were allowed to rejoin the women in the hut, they all got to hear of the salvation our Saviour brings and listened very attentively. It was encouraging to me to see this desire for the teaching. I praise God for putting this desire in their hearts! Pray that our Father enlightens their eyes that they may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of His power (Eph. 1:17-20).

Thank you so much for your prayers!
Cara :)
Jude 24-25

How Do YOU Celebrate the Holidays?

2011-01-01T20:14:00.001+03:00

I have received this question a lot lately, so I have decided to give you a little sampling of our recent festivities!

My birthday: Heather invited our whole church to my BD party. All 30 of them felt quite loved - both to be included and by the feast of goodies she prepared. We even had pop. I think it was the first sugar high some of the children of our church had experienced and definitely their first piñata. :D It was so much fun that a child peed on the floor in excitement. *grin*

Christmas Day: was a celebration and a half! Our church gathered in the morning with singing and praying. We then transitioned into Malagasy-style karaoke! Picture an open mike and speakers, but no background tracks or lyrics. :P You did receive a treat if you performed for everyone, so this girl did. :0) Once we had sung ourselves hungry, our hosts made lunch for everyone and we had a grand time conversing and laughing. Meat is a rarity, so Heather and I grabbed only one piece. Mine was delicious. Heather accidently speared a pig snout. Ha ha ha! Then began the dance party; Malagasy, American, French, and Norwegian songs all made it into the party mix. There were joyous shouts of "voavonjy!" intermittently thrown in as people praised Jesus for the salvation He brings. Six hours of partying later, Heather and I were among the first to leave!

New Years Eve: our precious friends Rivo and Hanta invited us to spend New Year’s Eve with them. This was very special because it was family time. Rivo and Hanta, their two daughters and sons-in-law, and Heather and I gathered together starting about 9pm and had an interactive Bible study until nearly midnight! It was a sweet, sweet time.

Please continue lifting us up! Our January plans include teaching medical and Bible lessons in the villages of Foibe, Ankazotsara, and Kianjanomby, and vacationing ! Our supervisor, Jeremy, broke his leg, so please join us in praying for him as he goes through physical therapy and he and his family get ready to join us again here in Madagascar!

Thank you so much for your prayers and the love that you show me!
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you (Philippians 1:3).
Cara :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T18:53:00.002+03:00

For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and with justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. Isaiah 9:6-7

The zeal of the LORD has performed this and the Child has been born! Hooray! May you celebrate a WONDERFUL Christmas day filled with love and joy and gratefulness to our Saviour. I love you all! Cara :)

Children & Babies

2010-12-14T11:07:00.002+03:00

Note of caution: I know this update is entitled “Children & Babies,” but due to some mature themes, you may not want to read this update to them.

I was just trying to get to know our new porter, Tsabo. Sitting across the fire from him in the hut, I ask some general questions:

“How old are you?” Twenty-five.

“Are you married?” Yes.

“How long have you been married?” Four years.

“Do you have any children?” Yes.

“How many?” Four.

“How old are they?” The youngest is three and the oldest is fifteen.

Wait. Fifteen? Quick mathematics swirl around my head. “You had your first child at ten?! “ Tsabo chuckles at my jaw (which is hanging open) and eyes (which are open even wider). Yes.

My mind knows the Malagasy culture encourages early sexual activity and marriage as young as twelve, but still I was shocked. At ten years old I was playing dress up and having tea parties. We had an invisible friend named Fred in my ten year old Sunday School class. When the teachers would try to make us sit together, Fred would sit in between the boys and the girls because the boys didn’t want to sit by us girls and vice versa! Here those boys are fathers. And the girls aren’t playing dress up. They’re dressing their newborn babies.

Also, do the math for when Tsabo got married. Eleven years AFTER he had a child with his sipa (girlfriend). This is not at all uncommon. The relationship commitment level is very low for most couples here, and it is standard and accepted practice to have sex with people before you get married and with others even after you are. Oh how hearts and lives are hurt by that! There is another way!

One of our newest lessons is on “God’s Plan.” It tells the Creation to Christ story which leads into God’s basic plan for our lives and then goes on to talk about God’s plan for our relationships. While taught in a culturally appropriate way, it is very anti-cultural and very Biblical. We head out to the villages this Wednesday through Saturday. Please pray that God would be preparing the people to hear the truth of this lesson from God’s Word. May their ears be opened to hear the Gospel and hearts be soft to consider this controversial message about relationships.

I hope to write another update before Christmas, but in case I don’t, a blessing for you all for the joyous season from Numbers 6: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” The Prince of Peace has come to earth (Isaiah 9:6) that we may have life (John 10:10). Jesus Christ our Saviour came, blessed be His name!

Cara :)

Overheard

2010-12-14T11:05:00.001+03:00

One quick medical story I wanted to share with you guys. In our “When To Go To The Doctor” lesson, we teach a lot about fever. Different illnesses that can cause it, treatment, etc. After the lesson, we give Tylenol out to each family after teaching VERY clearly on how and when to take it. A little old woman came and got some Tylenol and thanked us profusely. She then stepped to the side and started talking with her neighbors. She had problems with shortness of breath and wondered if the Tylenol could help out. One helpful chap exclaimed, “Oh yes! Just take three Tylenol pills at once and your shortness of breath will be gone forever!” AHHHHH! Oh my. Lack of medical knowledge is so huge here. We try so hard to teach over and over about ANY medication we give out because of things just like this, but sometimes it seems like an uphill battle. We were also informed that you contact AIDS by touching money right after an infected person or by wearing someone else’s underwear (why would you even do that?). Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we seek to teach medical truth to the people here, as well as spiritual!

Quick note

2010-12-06T11:51:00.002+03:00

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted lately! Quick update for you: I had a FANTASTIC trip to my sister's wedding (the pic is all of her siblings ;) and am headed out early tomorrow morning for the rest of the week in the villages of Ambodivoahangy and Fanolafana. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement! Love ya!

A Dozen Life Lessons Learned from Ambohinihaonana

2010-11-18T17:12:00.002+03:00

1. There is no such thing as sweat-proof suntan lotion.

2. There are witches in Madagascar. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since there are witch doctors, but there are also “good” and “bad” witches here who will help you out if you are in need of a potion (I didn’t see if they had love #9). Our guide said a witch placed a brief immobilizing spell on him during our first night in Ambohinihaonana. Just another reminder to keep praying and bringing the light of our wonderful Saviour to the rain forest!

3. A little heart language goes a long way with the elders of the village. After conversing with the wife of the chief, she invited Mirana and I to go visit her two grown sons in their fields. “Ha ha – she wants us to go flirt with them,” I whispered to Mirana. “Actually – that was an ‘invitation’,” she said. Apparently we passed the woman’s test for daughters-in-law! And by the way, the Malagasy word for having a “crush” on someone is a visual picture of a biscuit being smashed by a large machine. Youch!

4. It is a blessing to be able to sleep anywhere. For a while I thought myself to be normal, sleeping in tents and on hut floors, not caring if people were watching. Apparently, I am odd. I thank God for this ability.

5. We need to keep praying for our new brothers and sisters in Christ in the villages! Lolo, the woman who ran down from her fields to hear about Jesus, came to church a couple weeks ago, but has not been back since. We visited her on our way and she said she wanted to come to church, but she this past time she tried to bring her older child. Her husband got mad and said he did NOT want his child going to the “sect” that met in a hotel and had foreigners present. Her neighbors think she is crazy. Her husband is going to let her come this week with her newborn and she asked that we give her Bible passages to study throughout the week with her children.

6. Normally I would say heed warnings, but know that tic-tacs do NOT need to be stored in a “cool, dry place.” :P

7. I enjoy playing Paul Harvey and giving “the rest of the story.” Our guide, Roland, saw my children’s Bible and asked to hear about Peter betraying Jesus. I read it to him and asked if he knew the rest of the story. He said he didn’t, but thought that Peter was not a Christian because he didn’t even have enough faith to say he knew Jesus. We then looked at the passage where Jesus asks Peter to feed His sheep and the rest of the life of Peter. He really liked the part about Peter eventually having enough faith to heal the lame man at the temple!

8. My Bible reading was very apt for our first night there. I found that Leviticus 1 is much more vivid if you have just watched an animal get hacked up.

9. It was difficult, sorting through intestines, feet, and chunks of blood floating around in the bowl in front of me in the dimly lit room. I do not think it is fair that there are prevalent rumors of us foreigners drinking blood when the Malagasy really do eat blood. “But it’s chicken blood, not human, so it is okay,” explains Mirana. But back to that dimly lit room…spying a chicken part that looks edible, I found out that if you think you have grabbed a succulent piece of chicken breast and it turns out to be the chicken’s head, you will be disappointed!

10. But also, that disappointment cannot last when four men are dancing in front of you Lollipop Gang style. Wizard of Oz, anyone? Yes. The village of Ambohinihaonana gave us a thank you concert the night before we left and it was HIGHLY enjoyed by all present. :)

11. Leech and worm filled mud or bilharzias water? Sometimes there is no good third option. Aka: I was not a fan of turning around and going back OR plopping down on the ground and sobbing. It was going to have to be the mud or the water. lol.

12. It is SUCH an honor to share who my Jesus is with those who do not know. The looks on the villagers’ faces as they heard how Jesus treated those who were sick were just precious. I especially loved doing our very first “women only group.” Huddled in a hut, I got to teach about caring for children from birth to age two, told the story of how Jesus loves children, and then transitioned into the truth of Christ’s love for us. How He does not merely “overlook” our sin, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

Sweet people!

2010-11-08T20:56:00.002+03:00

My dear friends, I recently realized my neglect. I have not yet told you about my church! That precious group of people who meet together weekly to praise our wondrous Redeemer and study God’s Word. I wish I could tell you about every single person, but that would be an insanely long update. :P I was extremely happy to see Lolo (the woman from my last update) rejoicing there today!

The 20-30 of us meet in a hotel lobby Sunday mornings at 9am. Feel free to drop by if you’re ever around! We’ll be the ones sitting on wooden chairs in a semi-circle singing around the keyboard. Rivo normally preaches (that’s him with his wife and son in the picture), but only after the group of grade-school boys and I have had a race to call out the numbers of our favorite hymns and others have read a psalm or two. Glancing around, you’ll see hotel owners worshipping beside those who cut their grass (with hedge clippers or scissors, mind you!) and people raised in the city next to those from the villages who have hiked over mountains to get here this morning. It is a beautiful picture, my friends.

Beyond studying and praising with us, our church members are a great help to Heather and I in our language, pray for us, send us out and go with us to the lost, have tea ready for us when we come back from a long hike (hot chocolate for me – they know me well!), and a myriad of other things (including skillfully dig out Heather’s sand flea!). I cannot tell you what a blessing this group of people has been to me. As you all are, as well! Y’all have sent emails, letters, boxes, and faithfully lifted me up before our Father’s throne. Today I am thanking God for my brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world. God truly knew what He was doing when He created fellowship. :)

HIGHLIGHTS you can be praying for!
Nov. 9 – We drive nine hours north to take Heather’s parents to the airport. It’s been enjoyable getting to know them. As Heather has been ill, we will also have another doctor visit. Please pray for wisdom for Dr. Tahiri as she treats her and that my friend is completely healed very soon!
Nov. 15-18 – hike out to Ambohinihaonana, a receptive village that needs much teaching. This is one of the villages that practices cattle sacrifice to appease the ancestors.
Nov. 23 – I begin my journey home for Cali’s wedding! Early congratulations to Cali & Nyk!
Dec. 2 – the Norton family returns to the rain forest with their new baby girl! :0)
Dec. 7-10 – hike out to Ambodivoahangy, a village that told us a bunch of their taboos, but none of them could tell us how to get to heaven. Last time we shared the gospel and gave them a Bible. At least two men committed their lives to Christ, so I am very interested to see what’s happening in this village!

Remember this blessed thought from Isaiah 1 for those of us who have been saved by His grace:
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

In Christ’s love,
Cara :)

Overwhelmed

2010-10-29T10:46:00.001+03:00

“The vaza are here!” I hear the cry with my ears and then it hits my heart. The foreigners! Could this be about last week? I had to find out. My fields are far from the village, so I was up in my little house in the mountains for planting season. When I heard that cry, I left my fields and started running…but I was too late.

Huffing and puffing, I walked into the school room as their lesson ended. One of the vaza asked me if I wanted some Tylenol. “No. I mean, yes,” I said, dazed. I have nothing to give my children when the fever hits them, so Tylenol is a welcome gift, but that’s not all I want. I came because I know the vaza have something more precious than medicine.

“Last week I was sick and felt God tell me that I need to know Him, but I don’t know how,” I explain. “I have questions about becoming a believer.” The face of the vaza and her Malagasy friend, Mirana, light up. Mirana takes me aside and explains what it means to be a follower of Christ. What she is saying sounds nice, but I don’t know. I’m messed up. I don’t do those things she says a follower of Christ should do. And I am depressed – again. This happens each time after I have a baby. The others think I’ve gone crazy, but the sadness in my heart just makes me want to go away. I need to deal with all this before I can be worthy to be a follower of Jesus.

“No,” Mirana says. “You don’t have to get your life all sorted out before you follow Him. You need to believe in Jesus first. After you believe in Him then you start to see your circumstances in a different light.” Come to Him as I am? I doubt God would want that. There are too many things to think about. I cannot become a follower tonight.

The next morning I make the trek again down to the village. I have been thinking all night long. I ask again if it is true that I don’t have to get rid of all the problems in my life before I can become a Christian. I am once again led through what the Good News is all about. This time I understand. This time I decide to accept the forgiveness and freedom that is offered. This time, just as I am, I become a follower of my Lord – Jesus Christ!

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This is the story of Lolo, a woman of the village of Ankazotsara where we visited this week. My dear prayer partners, THANK YOU for praying that God would go before us and prepare hearts! THANK YOU for praying that God would raise up Malagasy leaders. A young man in our church named Mik went out hiking with us last time. This time he came again and taught a Bible lesson! For me you can pray that I stay close to Jesus and be readily obedient to WHATEVER He wants me to do. I am amazed at what He is doing here, and have no earthly way to keep up with it all. And so I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the goodness and grace of our heavenly Father. Praise be to His name!

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?...Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:4, 10

Cara :)
Eph. 3:20

Dada Be and the Flashlight

2010-10-16T09:33:00.001+03:00

The wizened old man, hunched over with age, crouches beside me to eat the scrumptious meal of rice and beans. The beans were a treat – we brought them from town. It’s not the season for them up in the mountains. “Dada be likes the beans!” His daughter announces happily. Dada be is the general term for grandfather. I am caught up in a conversation with her until movement on my right catches my eye.

It’s Dada be. He has discovered my flashlight, but can’t for the life of him figure out how to turn it on! I lean towards him and show him the trick. Suddenly beams of light off and on, off and on, illuminate his daughters face. *chuckle* Turning to talk with him, his daughter informs me that he is nearly deaf. We have somewhat of a conversation with me repeating things multiple times until I am loud enough, but always he returns my efforts with an infectious, nearly-toothless grin. :D

His sweet daughter cooked for us last time we came to this village, to assess it. This time we ate at their home again in order to continue the relationship. After our meal, on the way back to the tent, I tell Heather, “I really like Dada be – he’s adorable!”

The next morning we sit in front of the fire eating the cassava prepared for us. Hanging over the pot is a piece of zebu fat. Others have told us that they keep it there to season their rice with, but Dada be has another reason. “He uses it to heal broken bones,” his daughter informs us. “Dada be knows ahead of time when people are on their way for healing. He gets a fever, has to stay in bed, and sees them coming.” Answering my query about how he heals them when they get there, “He puts saliva and zebu fat on the area and then holds it over the fire and prays to God and the ancestors. He got this tradition from his father, and he will pass it to another before he dies. The power of the healer is passed down by prayer.”

In another village, a man stops me before I have finished the first part of my teaching. “You say that some things can harm the baby in utero (such as the mother drinking alcohol), but the father can harm the baby, too.” How so, I ask him. “You see, if a man with a pregnant wife is in the field and his hoe gets split down the middle and he continues to use it, his child will be born with a hairlip. And if he has certain things in his pockets and he puts his hands down in them, the baby will have twelve fingers.”

These mountains are filled with superstitions, taboos, and belief in the ancestors’ power in daily activities. Their eyes have been blinded to the truth. And they are hungry for spiritual teaching. A couple days ago a chief asked us to please always teach spiritual lessons with our medical ones, as we have been doing, for that is what they need. We pray that God will open their eyes to discern the Truth of God’s Word. We pray that as they learn about Who Jesus is, they will accept His salvation and worship Him alone!

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3

My Latest Update: In Which I Tell A Village That They Are Dead

2010-10-16T09:28:00.001+03:00

Shifting to get comfortable on the wooden bench outside the chief’s house, I ask Heather what time it is. “Five thirty,” she announces. Perfect. Half an hour after the villagers of Kianjanomby said they would be back from the rice fields and ready to listen, they had assembled and it was time to get started!

Gathering up my lesson papers, I glance around. A lot of people are huddled in a corner. There’s plenty of space for people to sit down around me, so I smile broadly at the wary group and motion while saying in Malagasy, “Please, sit!”

Pandemonium ensues. Wide-eyes and people turning to run quickly turns into laughter as they realize that I have no idea what I had just done. The word that means “please sit” in the dialect of Malagasy that I learned is a bad word here that means “you are all dead,” they inform me.

Remember when we went around and assessed the villages? We asked about shameful things in this area. Stealing a zebu, women wearing pants, and saying bad words came out the top three. Oops. Thankfully, much grace was given to this crazy foreigner by the villagers of Kianjanomby. :0)

Permayhaps this story is to illustrate the fact that even though I have officially been on board for a year (can you believe it’s half way over?!), I am by NO means an expert. :P True, it’s not every day that I mess up that badly in language and tell people they’re dead, but there are still struggles in the language area, for sure. I feel like I can fairly easily now discern cultural jokes and expectations, but it wasn’t until the third time we ate in a home that I figured out it was the home of the witch doctor (story to come)! All that to say, THANK YOU for the prayers you have been so faithful to lift up on my behalf and the emails, letters, and boxes you have sent to encourage me. Please carry on! You all are a continual blessing to my heart. Pray that I would stay close to Jesus and live out the love He has bestowed upon me.

The rest of our trip was eventful and great. There were some HARD hills to climb, but our Lord graciously gave the strength needed. We were able to give out a lot of medicine. Best of all, a man passing through one of the villages we were teaching in remarked at the end of the lesson, “I saw you asking questions in Ambodivoahangy a few weeks ago and now here you are teaching, so I was wondering – what is your purpose for being here?”

AHA! Do let me tell! I stepped closer to him and started telling him the Good News when I realized that no one else had left. The entire place was listening attentively and continued until I was finished telling them the Story and that the reason we wanted to come love on them was because Jesus Christ loved us and we want them to know that same amazing love. Praise God.

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. I John 4:10-11

I love you all,
Cara :)
Eph. 3:14-21

P.S. The attached pictures are of a boy who was just too adorable in his sagging drawers and Mirana, Heather, and I while out on one of our medical hikes. :D

Three Funerals and a Wedding

2010-10-01T11:27:00.001+03:00

Entering the village of Bevoahazo, it is evident that the village is in mourning. Everything comes to a halt when someone dies. The men do not work in the fields. The women do not shell coffee beans. The children do not sing or play games. Last week a mother and her newborn baby died and were buried. This week, a woman with “abdominal pain and high blood pressure.” The time of mourning lasts for three days. Family and friends sit continuously with the body, fanning it to keep the flies away. We do not teach our village Bible study this night, but instead visit in the home of the deceased woman to mourn with her family. The next afternoon, the corpse, wrapped in cloths and placed in a wooden coffin, is taken to her tomb. That evening, over 220 people listen to God’s word as Rivo preaches about salvation and then watch the Jesus film with rapt attention. While the deaths of the villagers were heartrending, they were definitely used by God (Gen 50:20). You better believe that place got quiet when, in the film, Jesus raised up a body, wrapped in cloths, from the dead. They gasped when the snake came to tempt Jesus, were bewildered at the mountains of sand with no trees, and horrified when our Lord was beaten and nailed to a cross. Relief and joy were evident at His resurrection, and, after the film, a man cried out, “Wait! Tell me again what must I do be saved?” Praise the Lord!

“Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods… let them say among the nations, The LORD reigns.”
I Chronicles 16:23-25, 31b

And the wedding?

MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED! :D I am quite delighted that God has brought Cali & Nyk together in such a beautiful way and am very excited to be able to make a quick trip back to the good ol’ USA to celebrate this day with them in November.
Praise report! We had many neat opportunities on Market Day and one young man gave his life to Christ! Another woman shared with us how she was in a coma for three years and, during that time, Satan tried to get her to take his hand. She said she did not, and that is why her right hand does not work right to this day. She has not yet become a follower of Christ, but heard the Good News and we were able to pray for her and her two-year-old son.

Prayer requests! For the new believers in Bevoahazo to be strengthened in their faith. For Heather and I: wisdom wisdom wisdom! The ability to see situations and people from GOD’S point of view. Please lift us up this week as we prepare medical lessons, study Malagasy, and spend quality time with our dear Saviour! As this is October (!), we are already halfway through our term. Pray that we would be faithful to serve our amazing Lord and rely on Him for everything.

I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. You are a constant encouragement to me.
Love,
Cara :)

[pic above is villagers waiting as we set up the film]

The Boogie Man

2010-09-17T16:54:00.002+03:00

The six-year-old girl tosses her braids defiantly and shakes her head no as her mother tells her to hike down to the spring to fetch a bucket of water. “You better obey me,” her mother warns, “or else the vaza will come to take you away!”

This widespread tale about white people stealing children sometimes results in children running away as we first approach a village. Sadly, there is truth to the child trafficking, but in many places it is used as a scare tactic by parents to get their children to obey…like the Boogie Man, the Little White Men in Their Little White Coats, Pegleg (whatever name that terrorizing creature took when you were a child).

Did we ever turn the tables on the parents today! *grin*

I have sat through many a medical lecture, and know it is much more fun and memorable if something other than just talking happens. So while teaching about disease transmission in the village, we added a little game…

The fashionable, yet appropriately scary, Bacteria Woman stealthily looks to see who she should pursue. Chasing everyone from women with babies on their backs to the chief, all were falling prey to her attack! The only thing stopping her was if they yelled out one of the ways they had just heard to stop the bacteria: “Wash your hands! Boil water!” Only then would this frightening infectious organism - known to most as Heather - turn away from certain disaster.

Were there moments of shock and fear as the crazy vaza bacteria dashed towards them? For sure. Are the people of the forest going to be talking for months about bacteria? You bet. ;)

At first we thought that we would teach the women of the village. When we went to get permission from the chiefs, they said, “But can we not come? Because we know whatever you teach, you will teach about God’s Word, so we want to come, too!” Praise the Lord that this is our reputation! We indeed shared with them through Scripture who our Jesus is throughout the lecture – His faithfulness toward us as we should be to our spouses (AIDS prevention), His power over sickness, His compassion towards those who are ill. The name of Jesus was lifted up and we pray that this will become a village that lives to glorify our Saviour!

Random thoughts from the trail if you want more…

On the fourth time I successfully crossed the log bridge I fell off of weeks ago, I felt like I finally acquired the skill of bridge-balancing (thank you WiiFit balance games)! ;)

Watching the children play in the muddy rice field ponds of Ampitivanana, my heart sinks because this is exactly how they get worms…yet how can I ask them to give up frolicking in the one place that can keep them cool in the summer? And speaking of worms, we gave out nearly 300 de-worming pills between the two villages! I am sure that there will be many stomachs feeling better and many children excited to check out the worms in their poop in the next couple days... :P

Surprisingly, this three day medical trip turned out to be a nice spiritual retreat. With the teaching occurring in the early morning and late afternoon, it gave Heather, Mirana, and I time to nap and have some sweet times with our Lord! I thank Him for this unexpected blessing.

Each time you enter a village or want to do anything in it, you speak with the mpanjaka (chiefs). While talking with the chiefs of Ampitivanana, they mentioned that they are ready to worship God first and the ancestors second. We spoke of our Jealous God and they agreed that it is Biblical to worship Christ alone, but “can’t” stop worshiping their ancestors. “We still think it will be okay as long as we just worship God more,” they said, “but we are very glad that you stimulated our minds which are often asleep.” Ask that our Father would continue to keep their minds stimulated!

It's September!

2010-09-03T11:30:00.003+03:00

Hello my precious friends!

Thank you so much for remembering us in your prayers. A lot of exciting things are happening here in Madagascar! We hiked out to assess our “last” village this week and discovered not only another village, but heard tale of four more villages past the one we went to (Ambohinihaonana – a mouthful!). We are going to go ahead and start some of our projects with the villages we’ve already been to so they know that they are loved and don’t think we have forgotten them. We will assess the other villages later.

Ambohinihaonana was a village full of hearts that were ready to hear God’s Truth! The harvest is truly plentiful here. I am praying that the Lord will raise up leaders in each village to teach the Bible. The people are ready to hear and learn, but right now there is no one to live with and teach them. We teach wherever we go, but there are many villages and only a few of us. “Then He [Jesus] said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’ “ Matthew 10:37-38

I am extremely excited about the rest of this month! Looking forward to our Kelilalina market outreach day, showing the Jesus film with Bible studies, and medical teaching and clinics in the villages (more info on all of these below if you want it)!

My hard drive failed, so if I have not responded to your email it is because it was deleted and I am very sorry! If you’d all like to send me a quick note then I’ll both have your email addresses again and get to hear from you – win/win! :D

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable! Psalm 145:3

I love you all,
Cara :)
Psalm 150

For those of you who would like more info:

Kelilalina market outreach day: On September 18th, Heather, myself, and some friends from church are going to have our own market stall where we’re going to talk, pray, and share with people. Our Malagasy pastor might bring his megaphone and preach in the streets (now that would be interesting!). We’re hoping this will bless both our neighbors in Kelilalina and all the people who come down from the villages to sell their wares on market day!

Jesus film: It’s our turn with the island projector, which means that we can show the Jesus film in some of the villages! It will be quite a hike out with all of the equipment, for sure! We’re planning on staying out for at least four days with every showing so we can do some Bible teaching before and after the film. Before mostly about foundational issues – what the Bible is, who God is, what salvation is, etc, and then after, with the people who have chosen to follow Christ: what it means to live as a follower of Christ. This will be during the last two weeks in September, so please be praying!

Medical: I had a little set back in the medical preparation area. My hard drive was attacked by a malicious virus and perished. Thankfully my friend Tim here was able to put the computer back together, but all my files from the last four months were lost (yes, I know, I should back up more often!). Anyway, that just means that I have to re-do my teaching plans, so you can continue to pray for wisdom in that area. During the second week of September, Mirana, Heather, and I are going out for the first time to teach about how diseases are transmitted, have a Q&A time (I think this will be my favorite part!), and then de-worm the entire village. Please also pray that God gives us discernment on which village(s) to make our guinea pigs!

Retreat: Last month we traveled up to Andasibe for our yearly Indian Ocean Islands retreat. We had a sweet group from Southbridge Fellowship church come and spoil us. If you want to see pictures from our adventure to Lemur Island and the Croc Farm, you can check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001474&id=85900022&l=e11d0ecafd

Out of the Blue

2010-08-29T12:15:00.002+03:00

*A guest post by Heather*

There we stood at one of the most comfortable locations I can find on earth, the beach. We had been warned that the water at this beach was pretty choppy, but we weren’t planning on swimming very deep. So in our great excitement we ran down into the water that was slowly rising and dancing on the sand. After a few moments of sweet bliss, foot prints in the sand, and wading in the water, I looked up. However, it was not soon enough. A gigantic wave came out of nowhere and pummeled us. Cara was knocked backward (and being about seven inches shorter) I was pulled all the way under and dragged for a few feet by the wave. We came up laughing hard. And we continued laughing for the rest of the day. We laughed because there wasn’t another wave that large for the rest of our time at the beach, apparently they only enjoy surprise attacks. We laughed at ourselves for ignoring the fact that there were other people there who were standing about 25 feet from the water watching us frolic in as unsuspecting prey. One of these men kept laughing at us for the next hour or so. Act two occurred several days ago as I was running. I was running along the road when I saw some children playing soccer. I asked them if I could play with them and they were excited and welcoming. We were really having fun when I went after a ball that had landed in a pile of mud on the side. I slipped in the mud and fell directly on my bottom. Some of the children were very entertained, but one of them ran into his home and brought me some water to wash off my hands. I thanked him and we continued playing until I had to run home. The point of these stories is not that I need to take walking, swimming, or ball retrieval lessons. These moments made me think about how easily I can be surprised. There was no reason to believe that we would be harassed by a random wave or that placing my foot in one slippery spot would cause a landslide. Sometimes I get comfortable when I don’t see any trouble coming, and that is when I am caught off guard. I am grateful for the comfort that I feel here and the grace that God has given me to live peacefully in a different culture. But I don’t want to be caught off guard, I want to be prepared but flexible for whatever and whoever God brings my way. Please ask that I would continue to be refined and prepared for the opportunities that He has for me.

Go Tell: Worthy of Worship

2010-08-28T14:36:00.001+03:00

But when He [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:36-38

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” Revelation 5:12

Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out

Let worship be the heart of mission's aim
To see the nations recognize Your fame
Till every tribe and tongue voices Your praise
Send us out

You should be the praise of every tongue, Jesus
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your kingdom comes
Until the final revelation dawns
Send us out

(Send Us Out lyrics by Matt Redman)

Why did the chicken cross the road?!

2010-08-12T09:35:00.002+03:00

Driving in the rain forest is so different than driving in the city. I consider myself a good driver, but there are animals here with apparent death wishes! Running total after 7 months: 3 chickens, 1 turkey, 1 duck, and zero lemurs (thank goodness for that!). I praise the Lord often for His protection against accidents. The various and sundry small fowl do not even phase our 4x4 truck, and I must admit that the feathers fluttering in the air afterwards are a tragic beauty. :P

Tomorrow Heather and I head twelve hours north for an Indian Oceans Island meeting. Please pray that we will be an encouragement and be encouraged by our brothers and sisters that we will see there. We’re also turning the time into a supply run to stock up on necessities like toilet paper, yeast, and margarine, and fun stuff like popcorn, cheese, and peanut butter. *grin*

With only two more villages to assess, I am turning more of my time to nursing preparation. For instance, the villagers have told us that they take very sick people to the hospital, but many times the patient dies before they can get there because it is such a long way away. They also said that most of their children who die do so before the age of three, so a couple of the many lessons I am preparing are When to Go to the Doctor and Caring for Children From Birth to Age Two. I ask for your prayers in this as it is very different than the emergency work I am used to! Also for wisdom as we brainstorm culturally-appropriate ways to have village clinics. :)

Our precious Lord has been ever so faithful to grow me and strengthen my heart with His presence and His Word. I praise Him for He has already won the victory – we are merely sharing the Good News of this with the people who have not yet heard!

“He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken. And it will be said in that day: Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isaiah 25:8-9

Love you all!
Cara :)
Psalm 30:11-12, 57:7-11, 66:8-9, and 67:1-7

Talk of the Town

2010-07-23T10:36:00.001+03:00

I head to the local arboretum, not as an avid botanist, but as a girl in a fishbowl. There is not a person in the towns of Ranomafana, Ifanadiana, Kelilalina, or Morafeno who has not heard of us – an untold number of villages, as well. As the average Malagasy does not have enough money to get into the park and there are few tourists around, I figure it would be a good place to get alone with God.

Handing the equivalent of fifty cents to the responsible of the park, he says, “You’re living in Kelilalina, aren’t you? Renting the house of Madame Lilia’s while the other family is gone? I’ve seen you driving around in their truck. You’re a missionary, right?” Yup, that’s me, mister. Would I like the guided tour? No, but thanks for showing me the chameleon anyway.

Wandering through the trees, I take breaks on benches along the way to journal. I come to a stone gazebo with a thatch roof surrounded by lush, green grass and plants galore. Settling in and clicking my pen to “on,” the point is an inch away from the page when I see him.

Back stooped with years of hard labor, holey straw hat perched on his wizened head, a spade in hand: the gardener. “Hello sir,” I smile at him. Shocked at the Malagasy greeting, he pipes up, “You know my language?” I am studying it, yes. “You must be the girl who played soccer with the kids in the field at Ranomafana a few weeks ago!” No, that was my friend Heather, I reply. “Then you are the one who was watching on the side practicing your Malagasy with people.” Yes, that was me. “It’s SO good that you are learning Malagasy,” he says excitedly. “I will help you learn by telling you a story!”

Did he ever! Quizzing me to make sure I understand everything he says, he spends the next forty-five minutes telling me of Abraham’s wanderings all the way to Jesus’ birth. He relates a tale that any Bible story-er would have been proud of. Hand motions, inflection, passion. Eyes twinkling, his face grins as he draws his finger across the scraggly beard on his neck. “Sliced the throats of the infant boys, the Egyptians did!”

Chatting with him after this impressive display of knowledge, I realize that, for all the Bible stories this man knows, He doesn’t know my Jesus. He laughed when I told him that I was here praying. Pointing upwards he said, “But God is so far away!” Oh, my new friend, He is not!

“…He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”

Acts 17:26-27 (Jeremiah 23:23-24, Psalm 139:7-8, Isaiah 50:7-9)

I met two strangers today. Both knew many things about me. It appears that whatever I do outside my own home will be the talk of the town, so please pray that God would make me a holy and blameless witness for the glory of His name! And pray that the Malagasy would come to know that not only do they desperately need His salvation, but they, too, can talk with God.

Hiking It Out

2010-07-17T14:31:00.003+03:00

We sit on in the dusty ground with fifty curious Tanala villagers surrounding us. Continuing our assessment we ask, “What do you eat?” “Vazaha,” they chuckle. Vazaha means foreigners! Heather and I glance at each other and then at our friend Mirana, who looks at us and says, “They said they like to eat cassava.” Woohoo! We are NOT on the menu tonight! :P

Thank you so much for your prayers. On our last overnight hike out we were able to see that God had prepared the way before us, our message was well received, many who still need to know the Truth, and hiked crazy, yet beautiful, trails!

As you have been praying, our Lord has been preparing the hearts of the people to receive the Gospel even before we get there. The leader of one of the villages we went to scoffed, “We sacrifice, but the ancestors have never given me anything!” Quickly yelled at for his impertinence, he backtracked, but that statement of doubt in the ancestors’ power was huge. They also let us pitch our tents on the place where they burn the zebu for sacrifices. Please continue to pray that the Lord would go before us to prepare the way!

Our Malagasy friend Rivo, came with us and taught the first lesson of a twelve-part series in the village of Ambodivoahangy. After hearing about who God is, creation, and God’s Word, the villagers reminded me of the Bereans in Acts with all the questions they had. It was wonderful! At the end without an “alter call” or anything, two men exclaimed, “We are convinced that this is true!” and now are believers in Jesus! Praise the Lord!

My heart is burdened by the fact that not only do so many not know Jesus as the Way of salvation, but in their everyday life they are not worshiping, loving and enjoying Him, and resting in the peace that He gives. I cannot imagine how people live day-to-day without our Lord here, in America, or anywhere. Please pray for continued language learning for Heather and me. The dialect here is very similar to the one that we studied, but we still need to improve so we can share the Good News!

We have been going on some intense hikes as of late. Our last one was 60km round trip up and down the mountains. In hiking Colorado I used to groan at the countless switchbacks on the trail thinking, “Surely this would go so much faster if we just went straight up the mountain!” Well, I know now that the Colorado trail-makers were brilliant! Ha ha ha. God has been so faithful to give us the strength that we need, but please continue to pray for strength and endurance! Sometimes I have to chuckle when we are struggling up the longest uphill stretch ever, and a man carrying a billion pounds of bananas on his shoulders or a woman nursing her baby while hiking passes us by. These people are amazing.

The LORD will be awesome to them, for He will reduce to nothing all the gods of this earth; people shall worship Him, each one from His place, indeed all the shores of the nations.” Zephaniah 2:11

You all are such a blessing to me and I love you dearly,
Cara :)

P.S. Here’s a project for all you homeschoolers (and those of you who wish you were). Since the Malagasy hike barefoot, there are times that the trails we hike on are only four inches wide, with tangled vines sometimes obstructing our view beneath us. To feel what it’s like, measure out four inches, and try to walk up and down a hill without stepping outside the zone. Then try without looking at your feet. Did you get wobbly? I did!

Top 10 Things I Learned on our Hike to Bevahazo

2010-07-01T17:30:00.003+03:00

10 – If, at age four, your teacher has to have a chat with your parents to let them know you will never be a gymnast, permayhaps you shouldn’t attempt to cross a slippery log bridge in the rain.

9 – The top four shameful things in this area are: nakedness, women wearing pants, having a dirty yard (which I don’t completely understand since they are all mud!), and not greeting your elders.

8 – A good sleeping bag and hiking shoes are vital to survival.

7 – Most people around here don’t know what happens when you die. Answers we got included: heaven, the sky, paradise, wherever they want to go, they just walk around somewhere, to your dreams.

6 – Ponchos are not flattering on anyone.

5 – You same gender twins are fine, but since brothers and sisters are not supposed to sleep in the same bed, if you have boy-girl twins, you must put those twins in the stomach of a newly-slaughtered cow.

4 – The people here have decided that Heather comes from a cold place in America and I from a warm place because she has brown hair and I am a blond.

3 – Don’t let your Malagasy friend, Fred, translate. I said, “Please tell the people thank you for answering our questions and they may ask us any questions if they have them.” Fred translates, “They (Heather and I) say thank you for answering their questions and you may ask any questions if you have them; for example: would you like to be my wife?” NOT OKAY!

2 – It’s a hard hike through the mud and rain for many kilometers to get to people, but when you get there they are VERY interested to hear what you have to say, for why would someone come this whole way unless they had something amazing to tell?!

1 – All the momentary discomforts are completely worth it all to share the Good News!

Thank you so much for your prayers. There’s more info below if you’re interested, and as always, feel free to ask any questions!

I love you all!
Cara :)
Philippians 1:3

PRAISES!

Our friend Mirana found a house and we have moved her in. Our relationship with her is developing well. She is such a sweet girl.

God has also blessed us with some insights on certain villages. The people in Bevahazo were very receptive to learning about Jesus. They really don’t know much (if anything) about the Bible and the Truth therein, so I think it would be great if we stayed there for a longer period of time to really teach what it’s all about. The trail to get there is quite difficult, and when the rainy season comes they are pretty much cut off from the rest of the world. We also saw quite a few medical opportunities in another village, so praise the Lord for His guidance!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

That God would continue to make clear the path set before us.

That God would soften and prepare the hearts of the people of Bevahazo to hear God’s Word.

For continued unity and growing friendship for our team.

And a few Malagasy proverbs for the road...

Cross the river among a crowd and the crocodile won't eat you.

However little food we have, we'll share it even if it's only one locust.

Other people's children cause your nostrils to flare.

Update from Madagasikara

2010-06-21T10:03:00.002+03:00

Dear Friends,

Rats bark.

Yes indeed, like tiny dogs. Who knew?

This place is gorgeous. The attached pictures are what we hike through – amazing – and a couple of children from the village of Torotosy - adorable. Last month was the first time for many people in Torotosy to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Our precious Father has encouraged me mightily with this passage, so I decided to share it with you:

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that you’re youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:1-12

AMEN!

Heather and I took a trip up to Antsirabe last week to pick up our Malagasy friend, Mirana. She will hike out to the villages with us as language helper and fellow minister of the Gospel. She is living with us for a while until we find suitable housing for her. You can pray for both housing for her and our developing relationship.

We are so ready to hike out, but are praying about what that looks like on a longer term basis. This week we plan to visit a the fokotany (leader of the village), a couple local clinics, and the hospital to gain some insight on the medical conditions here, with a possible trip out into the rain forest later on in the week. Pray that God would give us clarity and wisdom as we follow Him moment by moment!

Please continue to pray that my relationship with our Lord stays strong. Pray for the people here, that “The LORD will be awesome to them, for He will reduce to nothing all the gods of this earth; people shall worship Him, each one from his place, indeed all the shores of the nations.” Zephaniah 2:11.

May the name of Jesus be praised on the island of Madagascar!

I love you all,
Cara :)

40/40 Take Two: Village Life

2010-06-09T16:00:00.001+03:00

MAY
4 – Traveled by bus to the village of Petauke. I remember only about 30 minutes of the 6 hour drive because I took the recommended preventative Dramamine which knocks me out for a good 8 hours! The part I DO recall was a police check point. They boarded the bus asking to see our passports. Groggily digging in my purse, I presented it to them and heard them ask, “Where are you going?” To which my mind (struggling to stay awake, mind you) and voice replied, “Madagascar!” Cocking their heads quizzically to the side, my more-alert companions assured them that we were indeed headed to Petauke. :P Let’s just say that if I ever work in the NAME region I’m gonna have to lay off the Dramamine! :0)

5 – General training at camp regarding logistics (how to shower with a bucket, pee in a hole, etc) and lectures about rural vs. urban communities, oral cultures, etc.

6 – DFA: Meet government officials/leadership - Lauren, Heather, and I got to go to the Ministry of Health department and tour the local hospital. No surprise c-sections this time, but fun nonetheless!

7 – DFA: Men met with chief, ladies with the chief’s wife and District Commissioner’s wife. Let’s just say that no-bake cookies made their appearance…

8 – DFA: Medicine and the Spirit World – the rural version and digging deeper. Africans in general do not share all their knowledge as we Americans tend to. Knowledge is a form of power, so there needs to be a layer of trust before you get the more real answers.

9 – DFA: Church of another denomination. My group went to the local Anglican church and learned how to kneel, sit, stand, kneel, sit, stand (repeat ad-nauseum or until you have to bite your tongue you are laughing so hard :).

10 – DFA: Life cycle – childhood, youth, adulthood.

11 – DFA: Sharing your Testimony.

12 – DFA: Community Development and Disaster relief. Helpful practice mostly for how to assess situations and how we can get Baptist Global Response’s assistance in a time of need.

On a side note, it was great living in a tent with Heather and Lauren this whole time, spending peaceful nights star-gazing and conversing around the campfire with friends old and new. For me it was a sweet time of resting in my Lord.

“Return to your rest, o my soul, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.” Psalm 116:7

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29

“And He said to them, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while…” Mark 6:31

What is a DFA?!

2010-06-08T10:52:00.002+03:00

“Cara, what did you do in Zambia for a month?” Here are the posts for those who want details – ha! Our days in the city of Lusaka generally started with small group Bible study/storying. Mine was with Doug & Kathryn Taylor (thus it was splendiferous) and two national believers. Then we headed out in groups of three for our Daily Field Assignments until lunch. After lunch, we’d debrief the day and have lectures regarding African culture, etc.

APRIL
23 – Intro day. Welcome to 40/40 in Lusaka, Zambia! Best moment of the day = arriving from the airport and getting big hugs from all of our FPO friends amid screams of excitement. :)

24 – DFA: Observation Skills – see if you can figure out why they do what they do! Learning how to get insights into the culture by watching...in a very non-stalker sort of way. :P

25 – DFA: Group worship with a fantastic sermon about how suffering is a gift (Phil. 1:27-30 & other passages).

26 – DFA: Basic Bio – how do you get to know someone in an African culture? Hint: greetings and goodbyes are the most important thing you can do right!

27 – DFA: What is a Missionary – their answers might surprise you… We also had an “adventurous” meal near the market (Rose, the language helper for Lauren and me, is the one pictured above).

28 – DFA: Medicine and Heath – what do you do if someone gets sick? Go to a clinic, pray, visit the witch doctor…?

29 – DFA: Deaths and Funerals – traditions regarding these and a visit with a family who had recently lost a loved one to learn how to grieve with them.

30 – T4T (Training for Trainers), C2C (Creation to Christ) classes, and an adventure into the city of Lusaka for internet and a MOVIE.

MAY
1 – DFA: Creation to Christ and Gospel Witness – put it into practice! Lauren and I had some great conversations with ladies who were sewing in the market. They had many questions about what the Bible REALLY said because they had been told much misinformation. Another man at the ice cream stand asked us to tell him the story of Jesus because he had never heard it all the way through before.

2 – DFA: Church and eat with a national family - *sigh* this was day I ate caterpillars and kapenta, which are little, dried fish. I did slice off their eyeballs first because eating eyeballs, EWW! lol. The main food of Zambia is not rice like the Malagasy, but nshima. How to describe it? Think flavorless mashed potatoes with the consistency of play-dough and you’re pretty close. :P Heh heh. It’s really not that bad and makes for a good spoon, but I am very glad that our main food here in Madagascar is rice instead of it.

3 – DFA: Meet government officials/talk with leadership - in Africa it is so important who you know and who you have gotten permission from to be in the village you are in, doing the things you are doing.

Next up…VILLAGE LIFE. :)

Divine Encounter

2010-06-05T10:04:00.002+03:00

Cackles of laughter filled the air as the mzungu (foreigner) pounded ground nuts and practiced carrying a baby on her back Zambian-style. See her there above? And that’s me on the right in the red-striped shirt. The girl was awkward at first with the large stick we use for the nuts, but strong. When I remarked on it, she said it was because she played trombone. Whatever that is. Boy, did she ask a lot of questions. All kinds of questions about our life cycles as Zambians – birth, puberty, marriage, and death. I was hesitant to share our secrets with a stranger, but after a while I warmed up to her. After we had been talking for a while, she asked me if I was a Christian. “Of course!” I replied. “I was saved at birth, just by being born.” Who did she think I was, some heathen?! She just smiled and asked if she could tell me a story. While I speak a little English, this story, she told me, was so important that she wanted me to hear it in my heart language.

“In the beginning was God,” she started and, waiting for her friend to translate every line, took me through a journey starting before the world began and going through creation, the fall of man, the Passover, God’s people, prophets that foretold the coming of the Messiah, the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the man Jesus Christ, who was and is God. As she finished the story, I prayed from my heart and asked God to forgive me, to save me. Before now I had never put it all together - never realized my personal, desperate need for a Savior. I believed the Word, and praise Jesus, was redeemed by the power of His blood!

My heart was nervous, yet jumping with excitement as I told the mzungu what I had done. She was overjoyed. As she told me her own testimony of God’s grace, her eyes grew big as she realized that today, May 10th, was the 19th anniversary of her own salvation. On top of that, this day is not only now my spiritual birthday, but also the day of my physical birth! Today I turn 25 years old, the same age as my new American friend. What an amazing day!

Update

2010-06-03T13:47:00.003+03:00

Hello friends!

Heather and I finally made it to our home in the rainforest - huzzah! It’s been a long and delightful journey to get here, but we are so excited to really truly be here now! In regards to what comes next I feel kind of like Solomon when he talked to our Lord and said, “I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in” (I Kings 3), but am looking forward to what He has planned for us and am trusting in His faithfulness to be our Guide. I'll be posting stories from the last month as I write them. :)

PRAISE the Lord for the time of learning and spending time with friends at 40/40 training in Zambia.
PRAISE the Lord for His blessings of safety, health, no lost bags, and great conversations during our travel.

PRAY that Heather and I would continue to increase our Malagasy even though our formal language time is over.
PRAY that we transition well to our new home in the rain forest.
PRAY for wisdom and clarity as we figure out what our vision of adventure evangelism/medical ministry looks like in the practical application.
PRAY that God would continue to prepare and soften the hearts of the Tanala people to receive the amazing message we bring them!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6

I love you all,
Cara

The Illumination of Spiders

2010-05-30T17:24:00.002+03:00

Blue sparkling eyes peered up at me as I walked the path back to my tent at night. Sparkles that, unfortunately, belonged to beady spider eyes and not ten million fireflies. :) My camo headlamp beaming, I walked the dusty path with only a few steps in front of me clearly illuminated and I think, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet (Ps. 119:105)!” Not a floodlight, not night vision binoculars, but a lamp, causing me to trust Him one step at a time. Not a future for me to know the intricacies of everything that comes next in a sequential order, but a future full of adventure, one day at a time with my Lord. What a wonderful Saviour. :)

Back in the land of internet

2010-05-18T21:42:00.001+03:00

Hello dear friends,

I just wanted to write you a quick note as my 40/40 adventure draws to a close (and I have the grand opportunity of an internet cafe!). I have had a great time of delving into the African mindset, renewing relationships with friends from FPO, and sharing the powerful story of Jesus Christ. Finding an ice cream place in each town and having bats fly out of the "toilet" were just added bonuses. :P Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and encouragement. I'll send some stories later on, but wanted to let you know that God is doing great things in Zambia and is worthy of all the praise and glory!

I love you all,
Cara :)
Nahum 1:7

P.S. Here are a couple links to my Zambia pictures if you want to check them out!
1) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001345&id=85900022&l=51c2184069
2) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001378&id=85900022&l=0743fee023

Quick update

2010-05-03T16:27:00.000+03:00

Hello friends! I am headed to the village TOMORROW for our 12 day camping experience. Life in Zambia has been very relaxing and it has been GREAT catching up with friends. Love you all! Ephesians 3:20. :)

Operation: TERAKA

2010-04-13T11:08:00.004+03:00

I love my life (John 17:3)!

Glancing around during our tour of the local hospital, I remarked to the medical director that it seemed rather busy for a weekend. “Yes, it is very busy; right after this I have to go do a c-section which we normally don’t do on Saturdays.” Hope rising up within me, I queried, “May we watch?!” “Sure,” he replied! After changing into the scrubs provided (yup, high waters for the tall girl!), Heather and I entered the operating room with great excitement and expectation (although perhaps we were not quite as expectant as the mother – ha ha ha!). We were not disappointed. The doctor prayed before starting the operation and a beautiful 5lb girl entered this world with no difficulties. As her mom continued to get stitched up, Heather and I held the baby within minutes of her teraka (birth). Heather even got to introduce the baby girl to her daddy! It was such a wonderful blessing. God knows exactly how to spoil me. ;)

We are now officially done with language school – woohoo! I enjoyed the time, but was definitely ready to finish classroom study. ;) Please continue to pray that we would learn Malagasy so we can speak God’s word to the hearts of people here.

Thank you for your prayers that God would continually have first place in my life. He has been encouraging me daily through His Word. How true the verse in Jeremiah 15: "Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts!"

In one week we head out to Zambia for our wilderness survival training called 40/40. We’ll spend 12 days in dorms at the seminary, 12 days in a safari tent, 3 days with a Zambian family, and then have 3 days of debriefing. This, combined with 5 days of pre-devotions and post-devotions, equals 40 days…and thus the name. :0) During this time I will NOT have my laptop. I heard a rumor we might be able to get to an internet café once or twice, so an update might be possible, but don’t worry if you don’t hear from me for a month! Do keep emailing, however, because I love getting all of your encouraging notes!

After 40/40, I am thrilled to be able to take a quick trip down to Victoria Falls with some friends. One of the seven natural wonders of the world AND great company? You betcha! :D We fly back to our beloved Madagascar on May 25th and head down to the rain forest.

Prayer requests:
1. For the many transitions we have coming up with packing up our house here in Antsirabe, traveling around Africa, and moving down to the rain forest.
2. For divine opportunities to talk with those God places in our paths about Him and that we would speak boldly of His grace (I Peter 2:9)!
3. That Heather and I would continue to learn the Malagasy language and specifically memorize the Gospel presentations that we translated by the end of 40/40.
4. That God would receive glory in all that we do!

I love you all,
Cara :)
2 Corinthians 4:1-7

We introduced our teacher to the Easter bunny…

2010-04-02T14:11:00.005+03:00

Heather and I went to jail again, but I decided not to put that as the title due to the outcry tamin’ny lasa (last time). Figured the Easter bunny was much less scary (for most people – CALI!). We also taught Edouard about Santa Claus. :P

Anyway, with our final language study week coming up, we have been taking lots of field trips, which I love! Yesterday we visited a Christian orphanage and my heart was SO blessed by the joy of the children. They quizzed Heather and I for a while with questions like, “Do you know Michael Jackson?”, “What are your parents’ names?”, “Have you seen snow?” and danced and played games with us. :) The girl in the picture wondered about our favorite colors because she wants to be a seamstress someday.

We were curious about what a Malagasy prison is like and wanted to investigate possible ministry opportunities, so we headed back to jail. A couple of the guards took Edouard back and interrogated him regarding why these American girls wanted a tour, apparently because a fonja (jail) in a nearby city was recently busted by a journalist for their poor treatment of prisoners. Edouard came out smiling after only a few minutes, so that was good. :P After chatting with the chief of police for an hour and a half and agreeing not to take any pictures or question those inside, he agreed to show us around. For those of you who are visual people, the jail looked like The Hiding Place meets The Inn of Sixth Happiness. There’s a women’s side (their children are allowed to stay with them), a children’s side (teenage boys who were studying French at the time we entered), and a place for the men. It seems like our new BFF (see above picture of us with the chief) is trying to help the men out by providing education, medical attention, and assisting them in selling crafts, but the area is drastically too small for 105 men. All who can fit sleep in one room on wooden boards and the rest stay out in the courtyard. The chief of police said he is a Catholic and let us pray with him over the place before we left.

On top of all this wonderfulness, it’s Easter time! Surprisingly, our town has become the hub of the season’s celebrations. Since we live in the center of town, we merely step outside into a fair-like atmosphere complete with a Ferris wheel and cotton candy on a bamboo stick – yes! The air is thick with excitement. And well deserved excitement, too, for that brings me to the most wonderful thing of all…

The very message of Easter! God came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He died to take away the eternal condemnation that we rightfully deserve for our sin. God is so BIG! He is GOD – Creator, Sustainer of Life, Holy and Powerful, and He wants to have a relationship with us (Ps. 8:4)?! Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us! Oh how I pray that God would shine His light upon this city of Antsirabe and the city of Nashville and that hearts would truly come to grasp His love.

Praise and glory to HIS name!

I love you all, am continually grateful for your prayers, and bid you a fond arahaba tratry ny Paska – Happy Easter!

Cara :)
Philippians 1:3,9-11

Just a tease...

2010-03-30T17:13:00.003+03:00

Our trip to Morondava was gorgeous and relaxing. Here's the link to the rest of the pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001300&id=85900022&l=24f3c882ac

March Mada-ness

2010-03-25T11:41:00.003+03:00

Ardor. Fondness. Attraction. Desire. Affection. Fancy. Admiration. Passion.

LOVE

I’ve been thinking about love recently. Love not as the world depicts, but what the Bible says to be true (Rom. 12:9-21, I Cor. 13, I Peter 1:22, I John 3:16, 4:10-11, 19, 5:3 to start with!). Love that is not just a feeling, but a choice and a commitment. A self-sacrificing love that endures relentlessly through persecution. The descriptions of love found in the aforementioned passages are the ones I ask you to pray for me – not that I would merely love the people who love me back and when it’s easy, but the tough people and during all situations. So when…

…the furniture molds for the fourth time in a week.
…there’s a choice between flour with bugs or no flour.
…the 76th person in a day asks me for money because my face is white.
…I itch and have unsightly bug bites all over.
…there is no internet or “entertainment” in the rain forest.
…I miss people.

God would bless me with His supernatural love for the glory of His name. Love that in every situation would allow me to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Him (Lk. 9:23). For His yoke is easy and His burden, light (Mt. 11:29-30)! In a world that proclaims “do whatever it takes to make yourself happy,” we as Christians should defy normality and say that WE are going to “do whatever it takes to bring glory to our God.” Jesus said they will know us by our LOVE and was, Himself, the ultimate example of love (John 15:13).

So if you would pray that God would saturate me with that kind of love, I would muchly appreciate it. That and please pray that Heather and I will finish language school strong. We have three weeks left before we head to Zambia for our month of wilderness survival training. :0)

We saw Safidisoa (the malnourished baby we took to the hospital a couple weeks ago) recently and she looks FANTASTIC! Much more alert and no signs of infection present. Praise God!

The trip to Kelilalina was so good. The rain forest was AMAZINGLY beautiful. We thought we could make the trip down there in a day, but actually had to spend the night in a town a couple hours away because a cyclone had flooded the road and our car couldn't make it through 5 feet of water! The people were very welcoming. There seems to be a spiritual darkness there that is not as visible here on the more evangelized plateau. We will have to adapt to their Malagasy dialect, but it is basically understandable, so that was a GREAT encouragement. We also got to be a part of the very first church service in Rivo’s hotel (Rivo is a believer and in one of my pictures– here’s the link to the rain forest album - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001275&id=85900022&l=d1d09b83e3 if you want to check it out!).

I thank my God at every remembrance of you all!
Cara :)
Psalm 95:1

Sharing the Story + a Newborn = Great Day!

2010-03-21T23:13:00.004+03:00

You don’t know me very long before finding out that I love babies. I adore newborns and even though am not a frequent crier by any means, get close to tears at every miraculous birth I witness (which is all of them!). All that to say when I was prayer-walking around town yesterday and God nudged me to share His Amazing Story with a woman who had a three-week old baby in her arms I was MORE than excited. :D

I sat down beside her in the shade and started talking about how cute her baby was (zazakely botrabotra!), how much she was sleeping at night, etc. Except for a stuffy nose, this little one was doing great. I asked the woman if I could read her a story about Jesus. In language class we translated our own versions of the Gospel into Malagasy, but I don’t yet have it memorized!

Leaning her head close to mine so she could read along with me, I cuddled her baby close and told her of God’s love, grace, and power. Most people up here on the plateau know at least some of the story of Jesus and consider themselves Christians if they go to church – regardless if they have a personal relationship with Christ. This lady said she had been a Christian for twenty years and appeared to be that many years old, so I tried to explain the difference between merely being sprinkled as a baby and having a loving relationship with the Saviour. I don’t know how much was lost in translation, but after the story the woman smiled at me with a tobacco-filled grin and told me she believed in Jesus. I thank God that the Bible is translated into Malagasy because I know His Word is powerful and speaks even when my Malagasy is limited.

Love you guys,
Cara :)
Hebrews 4:12

P.S. An update about our trip to the rain forest and such is coming soon!
P.P.S. The baby in the pics above is not the one from the story, but an adorable one from church this morning!

Update from Madagascar

2010-03-08T19:36:00.008+03:00

Dear friends,

Good news! Heather and I have found a “home church” for our time here in Antsirabe. It has been such a blessing to us. There is one Australian family and everyone else is Malagasy. At church yesterday morning our Australian friend found a chameleon and teased the kids with it. His wife was like "Hey, do those things have teeth?" And he said, "Nope, they just spit acid." HA HA HA! Oh my my my...

Amazingly enough, we are over halfway through language school! Huzzah! We have two weeks left in intense classroom time and then our teacher said for the last three weeks we can take lots of field trips to really help us learn to talk with people! Praise the Lord for that! :) One of the difficult things about the Malagasy language is that all but four of their verbs start with the letter M! So that can easily lead to confusion. Check this out:
Mandefa – to send
Mandeha – to go
Mandena – to wet
Mandeta – to cut the neck
Not exactly the words you want to mess up! :P

We are taking a trip to the rain forest THIS WEEKEND – woohoo! I am SO incredibly excited to finally get to see where we will be living and meet people from the Tanala people group! Please pray that God uses this time to fill us with love for the Tanala people, give us a vision for what He would specifically have us to do there (because the possibilities are endless), and have a wonderful time of fellowship with our friends.

You can also lift up Safidisoa, a malnourished baby God placed in our path who is now receiving rehydration, nutrition, and treatment for her infection at the hospital. She had swollen feet, a swollen belly, and was rather listless when we first met her. She entered the hospital this weekend weighing only 14lbs at 13 months old. Praise the Lord she is doing better and He has already received glory for this healing! Pray also for her mother who has to stay with her almost continuously at the hospital even though she has four other children!

Our language tutor has helped us translate a short gospel presentation into Malagasy, so I believe that will really help us with the Christian vocabulary. Pray that I will memorize it by the end of our time in Zambia!

God has blessed me with many times of refreshment with Him, so thank you for praying for that and continue to pray that I will keep the first things first while bombarded with many would-be distractions.

Let me bookend this letter with animal stories - after mentioning to my language teacher that he had unknowingly brought a little friend into our house, he looked down at his shirt and flung the bug off. "Quick - where did it go? I have to kill it because it is dangerous!" he said a little frantically. I laughed and said, “Are you telling me there are NO poisonous snakes in Madagascar, but I should look out for the CATERPILLERS?! Ha ha ha...oh Africa.

Hoy Kara ilay tia anao!
(Malagasy way of ending a letter that literally means “says Cara, the one who loves you”)
I John 4:7-11

P.S. NEW ADDRESS! Since it's taking about six weeks for things to get here, anything you send (mandeFa) from now on should go to:
B.P. 04 Ranomafana Centre
312 Ranomafana
MADAGASCAR

Welcome to March 2010!

2010-02-28T22:19:00.004+03:00

Salama tompoko namako! [Hello my friends!]

Oh my word. Time is FLYING by. I cannot believe that it is already March! Here I thought language school was probably going to drag on, but ONCE AGAIN God has astounded me by doing exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or imagine. He has provided some fantastic ministry opportunities for us here in Antsirabe, and Heather and I now have only six more weeks of language school before we head out for our month-long wilderness survival training in Zambia. Incredible.

Praises:
- For a Saviour who is so amazing! We serve such a loving, mighty Lord who is faithful beyond comprehension!
- For the language that we have learned and been able to use.
- For the many relationships God has blessed us with.
- For ministry opportunities that have immensely blessed our hearts.

Prayer requests:
- That God would give Heather and I memory retention of LOTS of Christian vocabulary so we can tell people the most wonderful Story in their heart language and always be ready... (I Peter 3:15)!
- That I would keep the “first things first” and guard my time with God as precious as it is.
- That our entire team here in Mada would demonstrate unity and love in everything we do and continue to be an encouragement one another.

I’m glad y’all enjoyed the ticket/jail story. Sorry to have frightened some of you with the title! :P I so enjoy hearing from you all and please know that I pray for you often! If there’s anything specific you want me to pray for, have any questions for me, or just want to fill me in on the news back home, I’d love to hear from you!

There are some tidbits below for those of you who would like to hear more of what’s been happening here in the beautiful land of Madagascar!

Hitahy anao anie Andriamanitra, [May God bless you,]
Cara :)

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
I Thessalonians 4:16-18

My Malaglish Twin – I was lured by the tantalizing aroma into a small chocolate shop in town. The shop lady greeted me with “Bonjour, madam.” Note: if you are white you are automatically assumed to be a French tourist. “Salama tompoko,” I replied with a grin. “Ahh! You speak my language!” she exclaimed happily in Malagasy; “Speak kely kely English aho.” THIS WOMAN SPOKE MY LANGUAGE! From then on we had a simply delightful conversation in our shared tongue: Malaglish. *grin* I shared about what we will be doing in the rain forest and why and she was very encouraged by that and said that she is a believer, as well. As she handed me a chocolate caramel square, I told her that I was very happy to have met her, and turned to walk out. “Good riddance,” she replied. Shocked and more than a little confused (I thought we had a good connection here!) I turned around to see her happily waving with a HUGE smile on her face, “Speak I English! Good riddance!” HA HA HA HA HA! Good riddance to you, too, sweet lady. :)

Time with ankizy – we see kids (ankizy) on the streets every day. Heather and I decided we wanted to take an afternoon to play with them. Going to the place where we normally see the most beggars we were pleased to see a group of children. We still aren't able to say a whole lot, but did get to read them a story we wrote about Jesus' birth to resurrection. They were so attentive and, from how quiet and sad they got during the part when Jesus died, they really seemed to understand! Later when we were shopping, a little girl carrying her baby brother on her back unwrapped him and let me carry him all over the market – and he was a snuggler! Oh my goodness. I love babies.

Leper colony and the mental institute – we have gotten to visit a couple missions near Antsirabe started by the Norwegian Lutherans (technically as “field trips” for our language school) and it has been so fun. I officially received my “off roading” stick-shift badge after driving to these places! Heather and I both have a soft place in our hearts for those that most people cast away, so getting to talk with the people, see how they live, pray with them, and bring them gifts has been such a blessing to us!

I found a dead lizard in our sink. I hope he died happy.

A Ticket and Jail Time

2010-02-16T09:49:00.004+03:00

I have been driving for eleven years. I have never gotten a ticket . . . until now.

I have a healthy respect for the law. I have never been in an African jail . . . until now.

There were three of us girls headed down the road in a 4x4 truck. Our plan was to experience the famous Lake Tritriva in a nearby volcano. The obstacle: road checks. You see, while traversing through Madagascar there are routine police stops. You generally get waved over, get your papers checked, smile, and go on your way. This time, however, was an exception . . .

“Salama tompoko!” I said with a wide grin as I rolled down my window for the policeman at a usual police stop. A look of surprise and delight came over his face as I continued with some typical Malagasy greetings. “Taratasy, azafady,” he motioned, and Heather reached into our glove compartment for the official papers. Handing them to him one at a time, he lackadaisically perused through. Registration – check. Insurance – check. Title – check. Control technique . . . oh dear, that expired two weeks ago? My apologies, officer! “License, azafady,” came the dejected reply. I handed over my international driver’s license and kept chatting gaily away in Malaglish, hoping he wouldn’t ask for my American license or passport and would send us on our merry way. Malaglish is what Heather has named my form of speaking Malagasy supplemented with English words when I don’t know the right Malagasy one! :) Well, apparently the control technique is a big deal, because although swayed by my charm, he had to take my license and papers and write me a ticket.

“Mety, mety,” I said, smiling and resigned. Okay. At first he told us that we could not drive anywhere until the control technique was updated, but relented when we told him of our ardent desire to see Antsirabe’s renowned lake. “Mirary soa,” have a nice day, I called out while driving away toward the mountains.

The obstacle was overcome, we saw the beautiful volcano lake (pics will be up on Facebook as soon as I can get to any reliable internet source), and we had a simply delightful time.

My tale now brings me to the part where I go to jail. Knowing we were required to pay the ticket to ransom the papers from the police station, Heather and I went on a search for the control technique place, since one would think you would need to prove to the police that you got the problem fixed. Dodging potholes and children we made our way down the hill to the place where you renew your control technique. Upon arriving, we were ushered into the manager’s office. He quickly motioned for us to make ourselves comfortable in the hard back chairs. Again with the Malaglish we made our intentions known to him and heard some not-so-startling news: we needed to go to the police station and get our papers before they could do any updates. “Misotra betsaka,” thank you very much we said as we walked back to our truck, chuckling at life in Africa.

Not knowing how to get to the police station from this part of town, I rolled the car to a stop on the side of the road while Heather leaned out the window and asked, “Azafady, aiza no police station?” Beaming, the man gestured that the police were close! Just down the way we see a policeman at the local jail. Again I pull over and Heather and I hop out and jaunt across the thoroughfare. The lone officer was inside the gate at the prison, so ignoring the looks of “you girls are crazy (adaladala izy),” we walked briskly through the gate over to him and showed him our ticket. Discerning that we did not know much Malagasy or French, the man leaned down and wrote in the sand, er, on a piece of paper. Using broad strokes, he drew a map of where the correct police station to solve this problem was, and handed it to us with flair. We thanked him, turned, and laughed heartily once we were in our truck.

After circling around town on this scavenger hunt of ours, we arrived at the blue and white police station only to find out that the place we sought was a block away. No worries, it’s a beautiful, sunny day, we replied and headed over to yet another building.

Curious stares and amiable greetings awaited us at every turn. Stepping into the building, we nearly made it to the registration counter when a man eagerly stopped us wanting to practice his three English phrases: how are you, hold me close, and kiss me. Not really wanting to know why these were the only expressions he knew in our mother tongue, Heather and I inched closer and closer to an older policeman at registration . . . an interesting chap who was moderately inebriated, but able to tell us that we needed to go to window 18 . . . outside. Rapping on the window pane facilitated nothing, for there was no one in No. 18. Peering in, I spied only linoleum and a single wooden chair. Noting that we needed Mister 18, we were informed that he had been telephoned in and we were to wait right here. An hour passed. We had many opportunities to tell people why we were here, and prayed with a woman about her mentally ill daughter. Another hour passed. A policeman persistently told Heather she had a beautiful face and, before speeding away on his moped, called out to invite her to ride off into the sunset with him. Amazingly, she declined.

No. 18 showed up. Opened the window and told us the damage report: 33,000 ariary (about $16 US). After trying unsuccessfully to haggle the price down, I paid and he sprinted out of the building, across the street, and up a flight of stairs. Heather and I looked at each other quizzically and shrugged. After a minute he came back down the stairs, passed us two on his way back into the station, and from the other side of window 18 had me sign a French document, which I believe gave him the rights to name my firstborn child. Handing me my change, he said “Vita!” Finished! We bid all of our new police friends a fond farewell and proceeded home (via the control technique place which was, of course, closed). *big grin*

The end.

A Day in the Life...

2010-02-03T13:46:00.003+03:00

In preface, there really is no such thing as a “typical” day here, so I just took today, the first day of February, as an example of life here in our little town of Antsirabe, Madagascar…

7:20am – I know this hour surprises some of you, but this is when I wake up, generally very rested and ready for a new day (Ps. 3:5, Lam. 3:22-23). This morning I decided not to shower, mainly because this past week we’ve had only hot water in the shower. As much as I would NEVER have thought this before experiencing both, it is much easier to take a cold shower then a boiling hot one! Ha ha. Oh, and I did take one the day before, so am not entirely disgusting. ;) On to my morning quiet time... :)

From 8:30-12:30 is language and culture school. Most of the time we take a cookie and coffee (lemonade for me) break mid-way through. Edouard says I make “tsara be mofo mamy,” which is literally “really good sweet bread!” lol. I guess it just comes with being a Bergthold! Today we take the time to enjoy some bread that Edouard’s wife so sweetly sent us.

After lunch, Heather and I drive over to the Norton’s house, for they graciously allow us to use their internet. Today (and every day thus far, by the grace of God) we manage to avoid hitting any one of the myriad of pedestrians, bicyclists, pousse-pousse, animals, or anything else on the road. It is always an adventure driving and always lovely to catch up on how our friends in America and other parts of the world are doing. :0) We love you guys!

Next we go to the mechanic’s. Fret not - our truck is running well! Last Sunday, however, it didn’t want to start after church. A gentleman from the church said he knew where a mechanic was, but figured it was closed since it was Sunday. We walked a few blocks down the dirt road to see that, sure enough, it was closed. Thankfully the mechanic lived next door and was willing to come fix the truck! After he fixed it I asked, “ohatrinona ny totaliny,” to see what I owed him. His answer did not sound like any number I had learned, so I asked our friend from church if he could help translate. Turns out the guy was saying that there was no charge! How nice was that?! God truly blesses us beyond what we can think of! So today we took the kind mechanic a thank you note and cookies. :)

Our next stop was the bakery for some fresh bread, and then on to the market where everyone wants you to buy something – fruit, a pousse-pousse ride, a live chicken (Ps. 148:10). I couldn’t help but grin when greeted “salama tompoko!” by a man happily slicing open an entire head of zebu. We last went to ShopRite, the only grocery store in town, for our meat, peanut butter, and milk in a box. :P Once we got home there were the normal after-shopping things to do such as putting away our groceries, soaking our fruits and veggies in bleach water, and trimming and boiling the chicken (I think I am going to attempt a chicken pot pie tomorrow – mmm!).

Then we studied Malagasy, mostly going over our translation and grammar homework for tomorrow. We’ve been using our vocabulary words around town as we take walks and shop. This past weekend we decided to be very purposeful about using what we had learned, and took our short biographies (IN Malagasy-woohoo!) to a nearby park. There we queried, “afaka miteny Malagasy miaraka aminao ve aho” (which means may I practice Malagasy with you?) and proceeded to share about ourselves and our amazing God (I John 3:1a). People were very open to talk with us, which made us want all the more to know Malagasy so we can know what the people are saying and how to respond! Please continue to pray for quick language learning AND speaking for us both!

Tonight was Mexican night for dinner. The homemade tortillas with zebu hamburger were quite delectable. We are eating so well, you guys! Heather and I calculated that we spend the most money on food right now (which still isn’t too much), and it is well worth it. We figure we’ll eat so well these first three months that if we hike for a week or a month into the rain forest at a time and only have rice and beans, we’ll be quite okay with it!

After supper we study some more, finish up our homework, and have a heart to heart chat. Ha ha – we have those all the time! J I am now writing this update to you my dear friends, plan to read a little and then head to bed!

Thank you for praying with me for the Malagasy people. Pray that God would give them ears to hear His Word, hearts soft and ready to accept Him, mouths quick to praise His holy Name, eyes to see His glory, and hands to do His will. Pray also for me, that our Lord would make my ears able to hear the quietest whisper of His Word, my hands and feet swift to obey, my heart broken to what breaks His heart, delighted by what delights His heart, and wholeheartedly seeking Him! Ask that He might make my mouth an instrument of His Word that praises Him continuously (Ps. 34:1), and that my eyes would be open to see where He is working and to see His glory.

I hope you enjoyed this little day in the life (Prov. 25:25), and know that I love you all dearly!

Cara :)

My [very] mini-autobiography IN MALAGASY!!!

2010-01-26T16:09:00.002+03:00

Salama tompoko! Kara no anarako. Dimy amby roapolo taona aho. Nangataka an'i Jesosy aho mba hiditra ao am-poko rehefa enina taona. Nanala ny tahoko i Jesosy ary manome fifahiana ahy isanandro. Avy any Amerika aho. Manana rahavavy roa sy anadahy iray aho. Niasa ho mpitsabo roa taona aho. Mianatra teny Malagasy aho fa tonga eto Madagasikara aho ary hiasa eto. Tia an'i Madagasikara aho. Handeha ary ala orana aho afaka telo volana mba hilaza amin'ny olona momba an' Jesosy - momba ny heriny, ny fitiavavny, ary fahasoavana. Marisika aho. Tsara ny fiainana. Midera Jesosy!

*grin*

A basic translation for all you non-Malagasy speakers (lol - I would still include myself in this category!):

Hello! My name is Cara. I am twenty-five years old. When I was six years old, I accepted Jesus into my heart. He took away my fear and gives me joy every day. I am from America. I have two sisters and one brother. I have worked as a nurse for two years. I am studying Malagasy because I came to Madagascar and will work here. I like Madagascar. After three months, I will go to the rain forest and tell people about Jesus - about His power, love, and grace. I am excited. Life is good. Praise Jesus!

This is a delightful treat Heather and I came up with: chocolate chip cookie sandwich with a hint of peanut butter and generous portions of vanilla and chocolate ice cream in between! HA HA HA! Yum. :0)

Language learnings...

2010-01-19T15:03:00.003+03:00

My finger slowly traces the letters in black ink as I haltingly read Matthew 5. I stumble over a word and Edouard patiently corrects me. Heather sits to my left awaiting her turn. The three of us sit around our kitchen table adorned with purple flowers and a pineapple. Language school has arrived!

Salama Tompoko! [Hello!]

Yes, my dear friends, I have started to learn a language called Malagasy. Heather and I study with our tutor, Eduoard, five days a week from 8:30am-12:30pm. We study and put into practice what we’ve learned in the afternoons. We’ve only just started, but I am going to venture to say that Eduoard is going to be a great teacher. He is a believer, starts our daily lessons with prayer, has a fluent grasp of grammar, and smiles a lot. He even gives us high fives when he is especially proud of us. :0)

It has been humbling this past week going back to learning how to read, how to talk, how to cook, how to drive, how to shop, all over again! It has been a fun journey, however, and one I will probably be on for a long time! I got caught dancing in the market (I was oblivious to the fact that I was moving to the music until a round of applause and laughter from a group of ladies brought me back to reality) and told a mother her baby was a cute animal (the English word baby here sounds surprisingly like the Malagasy word for animal, I have since learned!). Fret not. She was not at all mad. The sweet Malagasy very much appreciate the fact that we are trying to learn their language and just laugh at our many mistakes. :) Heather and I have been experimentally cooking. It has been a blast and most of it has (amazingly) turned out to be quite delicious! There are now fresh cookies on the counter and ice cream in the freezer…it’s beginning to feel like home. ;)

I thank God for you all every day! Knowing there are people lifting me up to our Father’s throne constantly is a huge encouragement to me. I made it three hours into language training before I was like, “Are you kidding me? This is going to be really hard! Can I really do this?” And my wonderful Maker spoke gently to my heart with the reminder of “Who made your mouth, Cara?” He will enable me to tell of His glory however He wants to!

Praises – for good health, great language teacher, and the fact that the rest of our luggage is out of customs and made it here to Antsirabe!!!

Prayer requests – for a quick grasp and retention of the language, Heather and my continued transition to life in Madagascar including wisdom and discernment with our interactions with the many beggars here in Antsirabe. Pray that we would be excellent witnesses of Jesus and that people would see Him in us regardless of what words we are able to speak.

Tia ianareo aho, [I love you all,]

Cara :)

“Ary ho ahy koa mba homena ahy ny hiloa-bava amin’ ny fahasahiana hampahafantatra ny zava-miafina momba ny filazantsara.” Efesiana 6-19

For those of you who, like me, have not yet mastered the Malagasy language, here’s the translation:

“Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel…” Ephesians 6:19

The Mada Chronicles

2010-01-09T09:19:00.004+03:00

*Disclaimer*

Since this is my first update from Madagascar, it is going be long. Think maybe even a short book. So if you only read parts of it, I completely understand. Here’s the outline so you can choose what you want to read: :)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

DRIVING

ENGLISH CLUB

HYMN

MONEY/MARKET

PRAYER REQUESTS/PRAISES

BENEDICTION

First impressions:

Gazing out the window of the airplane, Heather and I squealed a little bit as we saw our first glimpse of beautiful Madagascar. We saw rice fields, red dirt (for which Mada is known as the Red Island), super blue sky with white puffy clouds, winding rivers, and mountains in the distance. I cannot tell you how excited those mountains make me feel. They are in my distance, too! Three months of language school, one month in Zambia, then rain forest here I come!!! J

Once into the airport we noticed some similarities and differences between Madagascar and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa/Haiti. One difference is that it doesn’t smell bad! lol. People are more reserved (but still nice and excited if you try to speak their language!), there are two and three story houses, and many colors. The culture is a mixture mostly between Africa and Asia. Initial similarities include poverty, people wanting bribes, walking in the streets, and much looser road laws.

Driving:

While they do have looser road laws, it is not uncommon for foreigners to get pulled over frequently because we are seen as having more money and the policemen hope we’ll just hand over some (under the table). I drove through the capital city of Tana very focused on not hitting anything and with much laughter. It was hilarious. J The roads are paved, cobblestone, brick, or dirt and aren’t in great condition. People don’t move for cars, cars don’t move for cars, the advice I was given was that, in Madagascar, you need to be a safe, aggressive driver. Now safe I have no problem with! Aggressive is what I needed to work on – HA! Watch out Nashville when I get back! lol. There are also the distractions of new sights – the foods, funny signs, clothes (or lack of any clothes), people breastfeeding and peeing on the side of the road, and engaging conversation within the car… With all that said, we are all safe and happy and made it back to tell the story!

English club:

This past week Heather and I have been staying with Tessa, a journeygirl here in Tana. On Wednesday she invited us to go with her to the one of the English clubs she leads. We read the story of Moses and then practiced vocabulary with words the students (college age) did not understand. It was during this time that one guy remarked that a midwife must be the wife in the middle (he later queried why the Old Testament patriarchs could have multiple wives, but today Christians are not supposed to). lol. Then Tessa asked them some questions which caused them to contemplate the implications of the story. After this the students could ask questions, and the questions were indeed excellent! They asked things like, “how can we know when God is speaking to us when He doesn’t often burn a bush and speak audibly?” After a few minutes of these types of questions, the students introduced themselves to Heather and I and asked us questions ranging from “What is your vision for Madagascar?” to “What do you think you will do with the rest of your life” to “What special diet did you eat to make you so tall?” :P It was a very encouraging time and afterwards we got to pray with a sweet girl who asked us how she could be more bold in her witnessing to her friends around school! There is another photo album up on Facebook of our first days here in Tana with a picture of the English club on there. Here’s the link if you want to check it out:
*link deleted*
Hymn:

Praise to the Lord the Almighty, the King of Creation! Oh my soul praise Him for He is my help and salvation. All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near; join me in glad adoration.

Jesus is so worthy of our worship. May many more come to know and praise Him!

Money/market:

Times in the market have been splendiferously fun and occasionally crazy. J Heather and I are picking up some common phrases to help us get along, such as hello, how much, too much, and cute baby! *grin* One thing that makes buying things difficult is figuring out how much we’re paying. Of course people try to charge the “vaza” (white foreigners) double the amount since we apparently have money, so we haggle on a price. So it’s quite helpful to know what a good price here is! To every $1 US, there are about 2,000 Malagasy ariary, but in the market they often use the old currency (FMG) which you must then divide by five to get the ariary and then divide by two thousand to get the dollar amount, going back up to the ariary to pay with. Sheesh! Brushing up on the old math skills… :P It is kind of weird feeling walking around with 10,000 bills (about $5 US)!

Prayer requests/praises:

Pray that God would convict and heal the corruption here. With the change in leadership a few months ago, corruption has increased. In the rural areas, especially, parents have warned their children to run whenever they see a white person because they are worried about child trafficking. Of course what they tell their children is that we are coming to steal or eat them!

Praise God for the wonderful group of people He has placed here to help us. The Emeishes, Spanns, and Tessa have warmly welcomed us to Tana and have been incredibly patient in answering our multitudes of questions.

Pray for our transition to the smaller city of Antsirabe on Monday. We are very much looking forward to this move so we can get settled in somewhere for a while! Pray that our luggage gets here before then so it can go down with us. Pray for favor with all the people at the multiple police stops on the road from Tana to Antsirabe.

Praise God for His faithfulness! I John 1:9, Lamentations 3:22-23, Philippians 1:6, I Corinthians 1:9, 10:13.

Benediction:

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the order of service. Ha ha ha. :)

“May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob defend you; may He send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion; may He remember all you offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah. May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.” Psalm 20:1-5

Please let me know ways I can be praying for you, and keep me updated on your life!

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you!

Cara :)

Mada = TOMORROW!

2010-01-03T00:08:00.004+03:00

“You know we’re gonna go a little crazy when we see Madagascar, right?!” Heather and I had to forewarn the missionaries so they wouldn’t be too shocked at our reaction tomorrow morning when we fly to Madagascar (Sunday…which is Saturday night for y’all since Mada is nine hours ahead of Nashville). :P I am so excited to see our already dearly loved island!!!

And there are way too many to attach to an email, but I have put PICTURES up of us and some crazy cool African animals. Here is a link which should let you go right to the album if you’d like to take a look:

*link deleted*

I continue to be blessed by all of your prayers. Many of you have asked for specifics, so here they are!

Prayer requests:

1. That I would keep first things first and always put my relationship with Jesus first. It is through this relationship with Him that I can continually have joy, love, and peace no matter what Satan tries to attack with.

2. That Heather and I would have humble and teachable spirits as we start language school on January 18th – and that we would pick up the language quickly – misaotra (thank you)!

3. Cyclone season (January-April) is upon Madagascar. Every season many houses are desolated since they are made of bamboo and such which don’t exactly make for sturdy structures!

4. Heather and I are air-freighting six bags. Pray that they make it to Tana before we leave for language training in Antsirabe and that nothing gets stolen!

Praises:

1. That Heather, myself, and all of our luggage made it to South Africa safely.

2. For a sweet time of intercession and fellowship here in Johannesburg at the prayer conference.

3. For an incredible team God has placed in Madagascar (many of us quite recently, which makes us very excited to see what great things God has in mind!). You can pray for them by name:
- Michael and Michelle Allen in northern Madagascar.
- Taisir, Kristi, Jasmine (13), and Sami (11) Emeish in the capitol city of Tana.
- Jeremy, Angela, Jared (8), Grant (6), and Zachary (5) Newton in Kelilalina (the rain forest).
- Tim, Anna, and Judah (2) Norton on Team Tanala (now in language study in Antsirabe).
- Matt, LuSinda, Karrington, Paul, Lydia, and Caleb Spann in Tana.
- Tessa King in Tana working with university students.
- Grant, Jodie, and Elijah (2) Waller down south working with the Mahafaly.

4. For my journeygirl partner. Wow you guys, I cannot tell you what an encouragement Heather has been to me. God has definitely blessed me beyond measure!

THANK YOU so much!
I love you all,
Cara :)

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." Jude 24-25

Cara's in Africa!

2009-12-30T22:14:00.001+03:00

Hello friends!

Just a quick update to let you know that I am here in Johnannesburg, South Africa safely. :) I am having a wonderful time meeting my Madagascar team - they all seem super sweet! Thank you so much for your prayers - Heather and I met up in Atlanta and were able to sleep on our long flight over to Africa. ALL of our luggage made it intact and the airport was incredibly calm compared to Haiti! Ha ha. Four days until we actually touch the ground of our beloved Madagascar! Please pray that we would have a healthy transition on every level. :0)

Love,
Cara :)
Genesis 31:49b - May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other!